Rise of Rurik

Aachen was Charlemagne's Aachen, and as the heir to the throne, Lothair naturally inherited the imperial capital of his grandfather the Great.

But this city was not built by him. As the new "Roman Emperor", it seemed natural to choose a new capital for himself.

There were four important cities in the core area of ​​Frankish rule: Aachen, Paris, Mainz and Strasbourg.

There are many emperor's palaces scattered throughout the empire. These cities and palaces can be set as his permanent residence by Lothair himself.

He is now in Strasbourg, and many members of the royal family from his family have temporarily moved to this city.

Strasbourg was heavily guarded, becoming Lothair's de facto new capital and a giant barracks. To guard this place, the troops could point directly towards Mainz in the north. They could also force their way through the upper reaches of the Rhine River that runs north to south here, enter the Württemberg Mountains on the other side, and make a roundabout way into Bavaria. Of course, the latter measure was only theoretical. Lothair had thought about the plan of venturing into the mountains to launch a surprise attack, but considering the strength of his army and his commanding ability, he had better forget it.

None of Charlemagne's three living grandsons felt that their military prowess could surpass or equal that of their grandfather the Great.

Even for Lothair, the force is rapidly expanding through large-scale conscription. Only in this way can he dare to launch a decisive battle against his brother. He lacked tactical confidence and did not believe that he could capture the city of Mainz with a small number of elite troops.

Of course, while he was still busy recruiting and training new troops and intending to launch a decisive autumn offensive, he had no idea that his rear was being occupied by Normans.

People poke holes everywhere. Unexpectedly, in order to win, his brother Ludwig made a secret conspiracy with those Norman nobles, and a series of actions were like making a deal with the devil.

The city of Aachen seemed to remain outside the civil war.

Lothair and his wife have seven children.

The two princes and three princesses lived temporarily in the Strasbourg palace with their father.

The third daughter, Yimingjiade, was sixteen years old. She was naturally beautiful and was kidnapped. The person who kidnapped her was Gilbert, Earl of Ramengau. This kind of thing made Lothair dumbfounded. As the saying goes, this is the critical period of the civil war. The neighbor of Earl Ramengau is the Count of Flanders, which has repeatedly jumped between rebellion and surrender. This Earl has actually become a noble guarding the northwest border of the Middle Kingdom.

Gilbert used this as a threat, so it was not until this year, 842, that Lothair had to admit the marriage.

There is a canary living in the city of Namur. The sixteen-year-old Imingard does not like this man who is five years older than him, so what can he do? My father has already recognized this marriage, and as a royal princess, I really have no right to choose my own marriage.

Of course, Earl Gilbert would not treat his daughter badly when he got his beloved.

But now the earl is facing the most serious crisis in his life - the strong invasion of the Normans.

But it was said that the Ross coalition led by Blue Fox burned, killed and looted along the Meuse River, and a large number of refugees fleeing along the river poured into Ramengau and towards the city of Namur.

After his father's death, at the age of seventeen, Gilbert was canonized as the new Ramon Gaubert by Lothair himself, then co-emperor and now the "only Roman Emperor"

….

Lord.

It was on that occasion that he personally knelt down to his monarch in the Aachen Palace. Taking this opportunity, he met his future love, Princess Immingard, who was only twelve years old at the time.

He was now young and vigorous. When the kidnapped marriage was recognized by the king, and he heard that Maastricht was seriously hostile, he not only guarded his fief, but also wanted to help the king solve the crisis. The young earl resolutely decided to recruit troops on a large scale and recruited all peasants in the fiefdom as much as possible to fight for justice and faith.

And this courage also impressed Princess Imingard.

At least this man really deserved to be a brave man at this moment, and that kind of masculine charm made her admire her for the first time.

However, Princess Imingard did not know the identities of those Normans, and she had no idea what this group of pirates who went deep into the river were going to do.

The entire Ramengau nobles could not imagine that Aachen, not far away, had been targeted by the Normans, and even these pirates who landed had broken into the city without any hindrance.

Aachen is not a city place, so the population living in the city has remained at around 5,000 people for a long time. There are hundreds of thousands of village populations around the city, most of which are located in the county of Lisigao. During major festivals, more than 20,000 villagers often flock to Aachen, making the city choked with water in a short period of time.

Hard granite slabs are paved into streets and lanes, especially the central square of the city outside the prince and the cathedral. This quite open area gives the Ross warriors who enter the city a strong sense of sight.

Nowadays, the blue fox doesn't care about plundering on the spot. The houses on both sides of the road are very regulated. If you look closely, it

They are still a kind of folk residence. How many coins can be robbed by looting people's houses? If you really want to grab gold, you still have to go to church.

The offensives of the two elite banner corps of the Rus' army were very targeted, and they targeted the palace and the church.

Since the army entered the city with almost no resistance, the residents of the city at first only heard the noise outside the city. They thought that because there were some follow-up activities not long after St. Peter's Day, the country people were shouting again. They didn't pay attention to the people who were about to enter the city. As a result, when they opened the bay window on the second floor, they saw a large number of weirdos with bucklers running wildly on the street.

At first, the people just watched the excitement and did not feel any fear. It was not until arrows began to attack the bay windows that the peaceful residents screamed in fear.

too fast! The army that rushed into the city was too fast.

The elite Ross army in blue-striped white robes rushed too fast, thinking that they would definitely not be able to compete with these ruthless people. The backward Jotalan nobles brought their villagers into the city and began to plunder.

They invaded various streets and alleys, broke into houses and shops, killed residents and then rummaged through their belongings. They could have captured many people, but these soldiers did not bother to do so considering practical factors.

They gnawed on the bread and dipped the pieces into the jam. They snatched pottery jars containing pickled vegetables and ate the seized bread with pickled cabbage.

After all, a lot of the food they had eaten when they set out early in the morning had been consumed by now, and their empty stomachs were in urgent need of more food.

Aachen is indeed the capital of the Franks. Although this city easily surprises everyone, the food here does not lie. A lot of sweet jams and honey have been seized.

….

There was a lot of money looted from the houses.

These warriors opened the wardrobes of civilian houses, took out all kinds of clothes, and wore long robes to show off to each other.

The bodies of those who were killed were not spared, and the shoes were stripped off for the soldiers to keep as their own, as were some of the blood-stained clothes.

After all, it is still too cold in the northern Gyota River Basin. No one living in that environment would feel like they have too many clothes. They were no less enthusiastic about looting clothes, shoes, hats and gloves than they were about taking gold and silver, and now everyone can say that they have gained a lot in this regard.

No, even the coarse cloth curtains stained with dust were torn down. After shaking off the dust, a large amount of looted clothes were wrapped in it, made into a huge cloth bag, and then tied with hemp rope, and carried on the back to continue participating. Loot.

"Keep walking! Don't pay attention to the surrounding houses and let the brothers behind you grab them! Let's go to the church!" The running blue fox yelled a few words and then shut up.

There was really no need for him to mutter anything anymore. The pile of feathers on his helmet and the Ross flag flying at the head of the team had already pointed the way for the troops behind him.

So, in the central square of the city, the city defenders met in a narrow road with the elite Ross army who broke into it.

Seeing this foreign army, Captain Sebastian of the Guardian Flag was greatly shocked.

However, he hesitated for a moment, then resolutely drew out his sword and pointed the sword pointedly: "Warriors! Kill the intruders!"

After that, he took the lead in the charge.

Finally encountering real urban resisters, the appearance of these Frankish troops inspired the strong fighting spirit of the elite Ross warriors.

But both sides

The gap in strength was really outrageous. A thousand Ross elites faced less than 200 defenders. Under the overwhelming superiority of troops, the defeat of the defenders was inevitable.

The heavy soldiers of the Russian standing army wearing breastplates swarmed forward, forming a shield wall and attacking like a steel steamroller.

The powerful force crushed the defenders' line with just one impact. Once the defenders were crushed and accidentally fell, the horrific killings began.

Among the rebellious army, Sebaste, who fought extremely bravely for loyalty and honor, was severely hit in the face by a battle ax. After he suddenly fell into coma, the hammer struck down and directly killed him.

A large number of Frank warriors, their iron swords stabbing the breastplates of the Ross army were meaningless. Instead, the Ross warriors who were proficient in killing used elastic steel swords to seal their throats. The cloth armor riveted with iron plates of the Frank soldiers had strong defensive power, and the weakness of the neck was discovered by the Russian army.

The square that was once the center of huge major festivals has now become a place of terror. The blood of the dead soldiers began to gather into a stream, gradually flowing into the city's drainage ditch along the deliberately reserved drainage gully in the square's stone slabs, and finally into the nearest river together with the seeping hot spring water.

At the same time, the great nobles living in palaces and churches have been completely alarmed.

At this moment, the palace is already in chaos!

Lothair can live in the Aachen Palace, but he has not been able to do so due to war in the past two years.

The eldest son and the younger son were taken with him, and the opportunity of the civil war was just in time for the young people to see the world. Three of the four daughters have been married to nobles, and only the youngest daughter remains in the palace of Aachen.

….

"Your Highness, come out

It's done, let's go quickly. "The palace steward rudely broke into the princess's boudoir.

At this moment, the extremely bored Princess Gisla was playing an embroidery game with her maid. She had already had breakfast and was still waiting for her afternoon Latin course.

Today should be a normal day, and I am doing what I like as before.

She had curly hair and gently brushed her drooping bangs. She turned her head slightly and looked surprised at the sudden intrusion of the male manager.

"Why?! Why are you here! Get out!"

The steward was startled for a moment, but he couldn't care too much now, so he broke in directly, grabbed the princess's tender arm, and said: "Please atone for your sins, now I have no choice."

"What are you doing? Let go!"

Unable to resist the princess's protest, the steward dragged the panicked princess outward like a lamb. Her maid hurriedly threw away what she was doing. Although she didn't know why, it must have been something terrible when she saw the steward in such a panic for the first time.

In desperation, Princess Gisla opened her small mouth and bit the steward fiercely. Even though she felt pain, the steward remained unmoved.

After being forcibly dragged out of the boudoir, she was shocked to see the nanny already waiting here.

"What's going on? Mary, what happened?"

The wrinkled nanny Mary was already trembling with fear. She forced herself to sit still and explained softly: "Raiders! A lot of attackers broke into the city."

"What? Attackers?! This is the royal city!"

"Your Highness!" the steward shouted at the princess, frightening the girl immediately: "There is no time! If we are a step later, we will not be able to escape.

Lost. "

"Escape? Why escape? Where is the army?" Princess Gisla asked tremblingly.

"The army has started fighting." In desperation, the manager no longer cared about any etiquette.

He is the palace steward appointed by the king. This position is not only to take care of the daily life of the royal family members who stay in Aachen, but also to manage the daily life of all the waiters, including cleaning the palace and gardens, supervising the food supply of the royal family, and even supervising the daily life. removal of objects. This is a very complicated job, and now his biggest duty is to take care of Gisla, the only fourth princess still in the palace.

There was a sudden feeling of weightlessness, and the twelve-year-old princess was carried behind her by the steward. This old man still had great strength.

"Let's go quickly!" The steward shouted to everyone in front of him, then he carried the princess and ran out of the palace.

"My jewelry! My clothes! Alicia, go get my jewelry!"

"yes!"

The maid Alicia turned back again. In a hurry, she picked up the small gold-plated box where the princess usually kept her gems and jewelry, ran out with it, and then used great strength to catch up with the fleeing people. She ran so fast that even her shoes were lost. .

Having just caught up with the team, she hurriedly showed the box she got. Seeing it, the princess finally smiled with relief, and also noticed that her maid was already barefoot.

The two girls are similar in age. Princess Gisla is Charlemagne's great-granddaughter and Lothair's fourth daughter. She can be said to be a top noble.

The maid Alicia is also from a noble family, but her level is much lower. This noble beauty, who was found by Gisla's mother from Lombardy, arrived at the Aachen Palace.

The aristocratic girl has big bright eyes and darker hair, which proves her noble bloodline.

Indeed, although Alicia is a maid, her ancestors do have Roman blood, so she has brown-black slightly curly hair, but it is much darker than her own princess's hair.

She was arranged to take care of the princess's life and grow up with her. The princess would marry a great nobleman, and she would be arranged to be the abbot of a certain women's monastery, and she would spend her life pure.

Regardless of their noble rank, they have never been able to disobey their arranged destiny. They are like birds that were born to live in a cage. Without feeling the vast sky, they can't say they have lost anything.

However, a strange army invaded Aachen, and the arranged fate finally encountered an unavoidable blow from the far north, like a blizzard from the Arctic, which dealt Aachen a more violent blow than the winter cold wave.

Many of the waiters may have had no chance to escape, and the palace manager did not care about the fate of those lowly people.

He planned to carry the princess directly to the stables and warehouses outside the palace. The grains and vegetables outside the city needed to be transported here by carriage, so he could use the carriage to escape in an emergency.

However, they were still too late.

The reborn star fruit