Rise of Rurik

The bridge in Maastricht has collapsed, and to the east of the broken bridge is a flat avenue that continues eastward.

This land passage will definitely lead directly to Aachen, and from then on the land battle can begin to complete the final battle.

The soldiers held back their energy and wanted to fight Liege. They made a fortune by moving all the way east and capturing Aachen.

Ordinary soldiers don't think much, but Blue Fox and the nobles have to think too much.

It is precisely because the army is forced to move by land that the ships that maintain strong combat effectiveness are completely unused. The army came here to make money and destroy, and a fierce battle with the main force of the Frank army was not its purpose. Such head-on fighting should be avoided as long as necessary.

The coalition forces would rather waste some time to destroy the traffic in two large towns on the Maas River to ensure that the coalition forces have no worries.

Either they were sick due to the continuous rain, or because resources were left in the camp on the right bank of the river, Blue Fox left some warriors behind. Their task was to guard some of the coalition's longships and all the large ships, and it would take some time to continue. Build the right bank camp.

A part of the army was destined not to participate in the future march to Aachen. They had to take care of the spoils plundered in previous battles and guard all the ships.

Now, the Swedish Mälaren Army has become less trustworthy, and Duke Bjorn leaves the meeting on his own. He can do this and leave with the loot they captured in a few days.

There is no way these people can serve as a military force to defend the rear!

Having stopped thinking about this, Blue Fox can only reduce its own forces and station them at the camp on the right bank in the future. Undoubtedly, this will be a real weakening of the troops for the attack on Aachen.

He had a bad feeling that the final attack on Aachen would turn into a very embarrassing battle.

This is not some sixth sense attack, it all comes from lack of confidence in military strength.

After just putting it together, even if the Mellarens escape in the future, the remaining coalition forces should number 3,000.

Such a large army can be described as a strong military force in Northern Europe, but what about Frankia? After all, it was the Franks' "New Rome" that was about to be attacked.

"Let's take a step and see."

He is a businessman and has an almost instinctive aversion to risk. Rurik took a fancy to his temperament. Rurik himself also considered the huge risk of attacking Aachen, which required a calm and cautious commander to act on his behalf.

Blue Fox followed the plan as expected, throwing away the immovable Malaren Army and a group of uncontrollable free fishermen. He bluntly weakened about one-fifth of the coalition's strength, leaving hundreds of people in the rear camp.

Each army had cut off some soldiers, and they were naturally angry that they could not participate in the attack on Liege.

If you have any grievances, just keep them!

The coalition fleet has begun to continue upstream along the Maas River.

This battle is unusual. The troops of the Jotalan nobles need better trophies as appeasement, and they will get the chance to attack. Even though they would suffer some unnecessary losses if they were equipped with weaker equipment after arranging the order of battle, since the five nobles didn't think there was any problem, Blue Fox would no longer force it.

There are more than two thousand troops, and there are a hundred long boats floating on the river. The boats are staggered, and the huge paddles slide regularly, like giant centipedes moving on the water.

It had obviously just rained, and the water in the Maas River had swollen and the water speed had increased. This increased resistance was not a hindrance at all to the nobles who were eager to make a fortune, especially the Götalan nobles and more soldiers.

They talked and laughed along the way, shouting northern folk songs and paddling rhythmically.

The armies of five nobles, Gorm the Broken Bones, Sonder the Stutterer, Badar the Bigfoot, Eric the Archer, and Cedric the Broken Tooth, sailed in front, and the Ross army in white robes seemed to be a foil.

At the same time, the Fortress of Liege was another scene.

A group of refugees kept on walking in the heavy rain, and the shortest walk through the woodland fields along the river was 20 kilometers. This not-so-short journey was a great torture for those who fled in a hurry. Those people who reached Liege before the rains received relief from the local church, and the strong men among them were forcibly incorporated into the army.

The rain not only caused the temperature to drop sharply, but also forced the subsequent refugees to move in the mud.

Many weak people simply died of cold and starvation in the forest, and no one paid any attention to their death.

Then when the weather cleared up, the ground was still muddy.

The Maas River Basin where Liege is located belongs to the lowlands of Western Europe. Rainfall here is quite abundant throughout the year. Especially after a summer rain, a large number of low-lying lands in the wilderness turn into swamp ponds and streams and waterways as dense as spider webs.

Such an environment is rich in water and grass, and all the cultivated farmland is where crops grow wildly.

The harvest season is not far away, and the Church of Liege hopes that the disaster of the Norman attack will not affect Liege. If the harvest is successfully carried out until this year's autumn harvest, the abundant food obtained can greatly solve the current refugee problem.

Because the small city of Liege is already crowded with refugees, they can only be forced to crowd into limited houses, and those who arrive later can only crowd into newly built shacks. They were so weak that if they wanted to cross the river and seek refuge in the east, they had to eat before setting out, and many of them were unwilling to leave after eating hot wheat porridge for several days.

Why keep walking? Liege had a fortress, a regular Frankish army, and an astonishingly large militia. Only God knows whether I will find peace after going to the East, but I can continue to stay in Liège and eat free oatmeal every day.

Originally, these refugees had already lived like beggars in Maastricht, but now they were just begging in another place. If the local people in Liechtenstein do not dislike it, many people are willing to settle there after the disaster is over.

The church was extremely busy, and so was the fortress commander Perot.

The state of the veterans of the flag corps is beyond description, and those forcibly recruited militiamen are really indescribable...

The weather is very good today. In the vast land outside the fortress, the militiamen were ordered to gather for military training.

The old warriors trained these warriors like dogs, verbally ordering the militiamen to carry their own weapons for thrust training, organizing them into a tight formation to attack in groups, and even training them to throw short spears as javelins like their ancestors did.

The militiamen did a very bad job, and when they saw stupid people in the army, the sergeants in charge of training could calmly criticize and pay attention at first, but now they only punch and kick them.

Flag captain Perrot took the time to count the existing announced horses before the rain. You should know that he even collected all the horses in Liège.

Many horses cannot serve as qualified war horses at all. They are mostly used to pull carts, grinding mills and plowshares. Their endurance has been trained very well, so forget about their assault power as war horses.

Even so, something is better than nothing. Regardless of bad horses or good horses, the flag captain forcibly organized soldiers who can ride horses, including himself, and the infantry flag team was forcibly transformed into cavalry.

As long as conditions permit, Frank infantry will fight in cavalry form.

Three hundred cavalry appeared out of nowhere, and of course they were more appropriately called mounted infantry.

The flag captain led these cavalry teams composed of various horses for training in a muddy field. The old and rusty horseshoes flew away endless fishermen, and the brown manes quickly turned to black.

There was a lot of noise at the fortress. Their training gave the city of Liege a certain sense of security. But the more they intensified their training, did it mean that the enemy's threat was getting closer?

No one knew what happened in Maastricht, so on this day, two cavalrymen were ordered to go north along the river road to find out.

The war horses were fed some oats, and the scouts also had a good meal. They set off in the morning when the sun was high in the sky and the cavalry team broke away from training and galloped northward.

The flag captain had a hint of fantasy.

"If those Normans feel they have made enough money, they will leave, right? The crisis will be over, right?"

Perhaps just like the news I heard in the past, the barbaric Normans disappeared without a trace after looting, and serious damage would only be done to a small area that was targeted.

The flag captain continued the training, but not long after the scout cavalry went out, they came back covered in dust.

The scout cavalry simply rushed directly into the cavalry team that was still busy training. When Perot saw his two men looking panicked, he felt deeply uneasy for a moment.

"My lord! My lord..." A scout pointed directly to the north: "Normans!"

"Hey! Don't panic about anything! Speak slowly."

"Normans." Another scout continued this panic: "I see their longships everywhere! The Normans are coming here."

As if a sword had been stabbed in his heart, Perlott was shaken all over. He subconsciously tightened the reins and the horse raised its front hooves.

"Damn it! Damn it! What I least expected to happen has actually happened?!" Perot, who was stabilizing his horse, kept shaking his body. He gritted his teeth and tried to calm down.

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The cavalry who had received the news at this moment were already agitated. They were not afraid of fighting, but they just did not want the staggering number of Normans to catch them off guard.

"They are too arrogant. They should take the initiative to attack when the sun is shining. If they dare to come! Just kill them!"

After thinking about it, the flag captain Perot would not sit still and wait for death. He shouted to his subordinates: "Soldiers, kill the Norman pirates and defend our honor. If you want to be a hero, the decisive battle is today!" let's go!"

The soldiers saw the heroic flag captain holding his spear high, and everyone followed him and began to assemble immediately.

Immediately after all the soldiers who were training were ordered, they began to assemble on the spot in large numbers.

The news spread to the city of Liege like lightning, and the militiamen in the city had to assemble towards the fortress. The refugees stranded in the city, according to the advice of the flag captain, asked them to attack Liege as soon as possible. No matter where you go, even if you go far into the bush, just get out of the city.

Perrot had good intentions. He wanted to believe that he now controlled a large number of militiamen and could attack the Norman Islands head-on even if he had to pay larger casualties. The decision to evacuate the city of Liege immediately caused panic throughout the city. There was no orderly evacuation, and chaotic escapes began. No, the narrow wooden bridge began to be crowded again, and some people accidentally fell into the water, becoming the first batch of victims before the battle started...

The advancing Ross coalition saw two cavalrymen appearing on the dirt road by the river.

Lan Hu was in the middle of the fleet. As soon as he saw the two lonely cavalrymen, he realized that they were scouts.

"Oops, we've been discovered. Send the order, all soldiers wear armor."

No one knew the situation of the Liege garrison. Based on the principle of being prepared, Blue Fox prepared in advance, which directly caused the middle and rear parts of the fleet to suspend their advance.

The front team once dismissed the sudden appearance of the scouts, but when they saw that the rear troops were busy putting on armor, they also paused to change clothes.

"The enemy must have discovered our army and must have formed a defensive formation. There must be a large-scale battle today."

Blue Fox passed on the "Three Certainties" in the form of flag language, and then each ship quickly used a spoken relay method to make the entire army crowded in the river unify their thoughts - there must be a war today.

As a result, the fleet that resumed sailing became extremely cautious. All soldiers with armor were already wearing armor, and the round shields that were originally hung on the side of the ship were temporarily carried on their backs.

A pair of eyes stared at the surroundings. Finally, after passing through a forest area where there might be an ambush, the world suddenly became clear and at the same time, a group of buildings suddenly appeared in the field of vision.

There is even a fortress-like existence with a low wall of black stone. And it is indeed the location of the military camp where Charlemagne was born a hundred years ago, and it is now the Fortress of Liege.

A large number of reflective objects appeared in front of the fortress.

what is that? Could it be a strongly reflective iron helmet? !

"Bah! It's a helmet!" Blue Fox was surprised but not surprised. As he said, when he could clearly see the shiny helmet in the sun, the reflective armor of his own army was also highlighted.

He decisively ordered: "That's it. Trumpeter! Blow the trumpet! Let the whole army land here. Let's go to the battlefield!"

After all, beach landing is a technical job. Since the enemy is prepared, the Ross coalition should pay attention to one thing and must not be caught off guard by these Franks when landing.

He didn't know what the opponent's strength was, so he could only estimate a soldier's strength by feeling through the amount of reflection from his helmet.

Blue Fox still didn't understand the situation of the Franks. He was cautious about the enemy and estimated that he might have encountered the legendary main force of the Frank army responsible for the confrontation with the Count of Flanders. He was also the enemy who needed to be careful in this battle. .

Even if it is a group of militiamen, since the old conscription system has not been completely dismantled, this is the essence of Frankish area. In theory, households from all walks of life have the possibility of being recruited as soldiers. Even if the armaments have been depleted for a long time, there are often some rusty weapons at home. Iron helmet. The Frankish-style helmet is more compact than the Nordic version. It has a visor, a middle ridge, and outward eyes on the temples, so that it can deflect the sword from the sword to a certain extent, and it can completely avoid the rain and prevent the rain from blocking the view.

Almost no militiamen wear armor, and the large number of helmets they equip is very intimidating.

The Ross coalition forces landed one after another and began to form formations according to the divisions of each flag team and each tribe.

Blue Fox took the trouble to shout to the chaotic soldiers: "Let's walk and run! Form an array! Infantry in front! Archers in the back! Engineers! Install your heavy weapons quickly!"

I thought that most of the soldiers were dispatched to fight for the sake of fairness. I thought that the operation would become like "beating a child".

Now, Blue Fox actually felt that he had greatly underestimated the defense strength of the Liege Fortress and the strength of the Franks.

When the troops were in formation, he gathered all the officers and nobles of the army.

He was very pleased that all the noble officers he saw were murderous, even smiling with fighting enthusiasm.

"You all saw it!"

Everyone said so.

"I didn't want to have a premature decisive battle with the Franks. It seems that our decision to plunder Maastricht really pissed them off!"

"That's fine." Gorm, who has been gearing up, said eagerly, "We should even be happy."

"What are you grateful for?" Blue Fox asked doubtfully.

"Hehe, I'm glad we were well prepared. Do you think, if we were still looting the city in the north, wouldn't we suffer heavy losses if we were actively attacked by the enemy army?"

"Sigh. In fact, King Rurik is calling on us not to fight this battle. However, no one wants to be a coward. Everything is fate."

"Fate. Is this fate?!" Yin Val, who was still being carried in the sedan chair, asked with a frown.

"That's right. Boy! There has been intelligence that the Franks have deployed four or five flag corps west of the Maas River. Maybe we are facing these enemies." After that, he turned his head and looked at everyone: " Listen, the prerequisite for attacking Aachen is to ensure that there are no enemies behind us. Either destroy the bridge so that the enemy cannot cross the river, or kill them directly. In my opinion, there is no choice."

"Then kill. Use the blood of Frank soldiers to sacrifice Odin, and all of us can get glory." Grund said the most violent words in the calmest tone.

All the noble officers exchanged glances, and everyone unified their attitude, and then the entire army unified their attitude.

They simply abandoned all the long boats, and all the ships were half-stranded on the reedy shore. The Ross coalition troops in formation raised the Ross flag and raven flag high, lined up their troops as neatly as possible, and attacked the Maas River where they thought the Frankish army was. Elite troops from the west.