Rise of Rurik

Remember [new] in one second! “I didn’t expect their arrows to be so powerful, which caused me to lose some men.” Count Gilbert of Ramongo had to sigh with emotion.

While fighting within the city, his horsemen killed a group of Norman soldiers.

It was easy to identify the enemy. It was midsummer now, and the Normans walking around the streets were shirtless in large numbers, revealing the very obvious tattoos on their bodies. The enemy took some precautions in the crisis, but the cavalry took the upper hand. Ramon's army, which had won its first victory, fought all the way to the city dock under Gilbert's example.

However, just at the dock, he, who was confident that he could drive all the Normans into the river and drown them, encountered the most outrageous blow he had ever seen in his life.

Floating on the river was the largest ship he had ever seen in his life!

Those were the Ross armed cargo ships and sail destroyers that accompanied the army on the expedition, especially the latter. Sail destroyers were a second-class combat force in the Ross Navy, and their size was much larger than a rowing longship.

The torsion slingshots were still placed on the side of the ship. They were usually covered with tarps for protection. In the critical moment, when the Malaren people were beaten by the unexpected Frank cavalry and fled in a hurry, the wounded on the other side of the river who were lying in the sun to heal their wounds got up to help the friendly forces. Fight back.

The javelins fired by the torsion slingshot fired randomly at the Frank cavalry troops crowded on the riverside, and counterattacked with the crossbows.

The sharp javelin penetrated the body of the war horse. The horse neighed and jumped in panic, which only made the injury more serious. It fell down while vomiting blood crazily, and threw the rider away.

At a greater distance, the soldier hit by the crossbow had the needle-like armor-piercing arrow pierce the flesh but not deeply.

Earl Gilbert was young but not an ordinary person. He hurriedly withdrew from the battlefield with his elite soldiers, not caring to rescue the wounded at the critical moment.

The injured cavalry still had stubby arrows stuck in their bodies. The excited soldiers could not feel the pain for a while. They had to calm down after returning to the city. The heart-piercing pain forced the dismounted soldiers to cry and convulse while covering their wounds.

General Tristan had arranged for his cavalry to clean up the remaining enemies in the city. Naturally, he also captured some prisoners of war. The prisoners had their hands and feet tied and began to be interrogated.

It's a pity that his people don't understand Norse. Even if they hang up the captured Melalen warriors and beat them, they can't find out why.

However, in order to vent his anger, Tristan did order all the prisoners of war to be hung upside down like onions.

This general was known for his cruel methods, so he obviously sent such a trusted general. Lothair believed that such a person sitting in Brussels could deter the Flemish people from acting rashly.

Now that he had learned of the fall of Maastricht, he now did not have to consider civilian casualties in the battle to regain the city. There are no civilians in this city at all. They were either sold into slavery or killed by the Normans, right? !

Based on his understanding of the Danes' ways, it is likely that a large number of people really became slaves of the northerners.

Tooth for tooth? No! All thirty or so captured Normans were to be publicly executed.

In other words, the execution process would be clearly visible to the Normans on the other side of the river.

The dismounted Frankish heavy cavalry soldiers temporarily approached the east gate of the city facing the river in an infantry posture.

On the Meuse River are the Norman ships that are eyeing them. If the enemy finds the right opportunity to launch a counterattack, will our side encounter unexpected passivity?

The Meuse River bridge has collapsed, but according to Gilbert's intelligence, the bridge across the river in Liege has also been destroyed. In theory, cavalry can be carried across the bridge by small boats, but the Normans will give the Franks a chance to cross the river calmly. ? Besides, even the Norman ships that had just been captured were taken back by the enemy.

General Tristan told his ministries to take matters into their own hands, and he went to the cathedral with his own soldiers first.

He smelled the stench just as he approached the church, and it was obvious what happened inside.

With his heart beating wildly, he subconsciously covered his mouth and nose and ordered his subordinates to push open the closed wooden door.

The soldier didn't want to do this. The strong stench as he approached the wooden door would have made him vomit if he hadn't experienced it too many times.

The double wooden doors were pushed open, and suddenly a black shadow spewed out with a strong buzzing sound.

"Ah! Lord of the Flies!" A soldier exclaimed as if being pushed down by a shadow, and accidentally fell to the ground.

On the other hand, the soldiers retreated one after another, but the overwhelming smell was accompanied by the flies. It suffocated all the soldiers present, and the strong sense of vomiting was no longer something that human subjective willpower could overcome.

Even Tristan himself dropped his hands to the ground and vomited all kinds of meat and vegetables.

Even if the so-called city is occupied, Maastricht, whose superficial wealth has been robbed, is no longer something Bjorn's Malaren army is willing to occupy. Dead bodies were everywhere in the inner city, especially in the cathedral.

Norman warriors were ordinary people from the north. Even if they were used to seeing death in killing battles, as long as conditions permitted, they would never get together with a bunch of dead bodies.

The inner city looked like a huge tomb to Bjorn, and there was no gold or silver to plunder.

After vomiting, Tristan stood up and continued to cover his mouth and nose to gain the courage to enter the cathedral to find out.

However, the stinking scene still forced him and the soldiers to retreat completely.

He had to order one: "Damn it! The bishop is dead! Close the door quickly, we will talk about anything later."

This was expected, but he didn't expect that the priests and a large number of ordinary people would die so miserably.

Frustrated, he took the well water handed over by his subordinates and rinsed his mouth, then he grabbed the riding crop and approached the hung Malaren prisoners of war aggressively.

He was arrogant and bared his teeth as if he wanted to swallow it alive. He held up a riding crop soaked in water and yelled: "You bandits! You all deserve to die! If you are stabbed to death with a sword, you will get an advantage!"

After that, he personally acted as the executioner. After selecting a prisoner of war, he used a riding crop to whip him to death with great patience. Finally, he turned into a mass of scarlet rotten flesh, and the prisoner died of exhaustion.

The dismounted soldiers watching had rarely seen a general so sick. As a close colleague, a flag captain approached Tristan and grabbed his arm: "Brother, that's enough. These are just a group of sheep in the sheepfold. If you want to kill them, give them a good time."

Tristan angrily threw down the bloody riding crop: "Damn it! I'm very angry now."

"But we are not them. When everything is over, let us collect the bodies of the victims."

"It's over?" Tristan turned his head and stared at his colleagues in the face: "How to talk about the end? The Normans are still entrenched on the other side of the river. How can I report to the king now? Tell him that we guarded Brussels, but lost Master Richter? I’m going to fight back! I’m going to wipe them out.”

That being said, all three Frankish heavy cavalry flag captains, including him, knew that the cavalry could not step directly across the river unless the Normans were willing to cross the river and fight the cavalry one after another.

Were the Normans fools? No one thinks they are stupid. On the contrary, everyone feels that they are stupid because of their passiveness in this attack.

The flag captain suppressed his anger and suggested: "We should indeed kill them. Our army cannot cross the river directly. We must find a way to anger the Normans and force them to cross the river to challenge us. In this way, our army The iron hooves trampled them all into pulp.”

"What else can we do? I think...those guys will be afraid of our cavalry power."

What Tristan said was inherently arrogant, but if you think about it for a moment, if you were in charge of infantry, you would have to move around when you saw the enemy's cavalry.

"Provoke them," the flag captain continued. "I heard that the Danes are very brave and fierce. Through some humiliation, they will definitely be forced to submit."

"How to do?"

"Don't they have blood eagle punishment? We can imitate it. But we don't have to learn it completely. We don't need mercy to kill these gangsters with heretical beliefs. Since you want to vent your anger, then use another way to vent your anger. At least let them vent your anger. See."

The flag captain seemed to have said a lot of nonsense, but also seemed to have given Tristan some inspiration. He was looking at the terrified prisoners of war, pinching his curly beard and couldn't help but have some wild thoughts.

However, General Tristan did not give up the possibility of crossing the river to attack.

He held his helmet and led his soldiers to the camp of Count Ramongo.

Gilbert, this young man's bravery is worthy of admiration, but bravery and recklessness are often difficult to explain clearly. He would never dare to sternly scold this boy for being reckless in person. After all, this boy was actually the king's legal son-in-law and had become a figure that could not be scolded.

In the end, Maastricht returned to the Franks, and the cross flag flew again on the city walls.

Before his anger subsided, he approached Gilbert aggressively: "Young man, your bravery impresses me. We almost drove the Normans down the river to feed the fish."

But Gilbert couldn't be happy, "Uncle, do you know?"

"what do you know?"

"I was almost shot! They have big ships and can throw javelins. Is that human-powered? I saw with my own eyes that our army's horses were shot through the side."

Tristan choked for a moment: "Obviously. The Normans had some secret weapons. No wonder they captured this city, but everything passed and we recovered this place."

"Recapture? No. This city is empty. I found some stinky corpses and am arranging for manpower to bury them on the spot."

"You're doing a great job. In fact the situation in the inner city is worse."

"In the inner city, are there dead bodies everywhere? Where is the bishop?" Gilbert was of course sure that the bishop was dead. He hoped that the bishop would die a dignified death, but looking at the general's gloomy face, it was obvious that the situation was bad.

"You'd better stop asking."

"Okay. I won't ask. Uncle, what will happen to us now? The Normans are on the other side. However, I lost some soldiers and horses, and my cavalry cannot cross the Meuse River."

Tristan nodded: "That's why I'm here."

"what for?"

"You said it. The bridge in Liege City broke and collapsed, so our army cannot use the bridge there to detour, but is there a possibility?"

"What are you implying?"

"Go through your fiefdom. Cross the river from the bridge in Namur City. Or, just take a boat across the river from Xiuyin."

"My fief?" Gilbert had to think about it.

He was very vigilant about this matter. After all, Tristan was a direct subordinate of the king, and the standing army must carry out necessary supplies when passing through his fiefdom. He was very resistant to this in his heart, if it was the king's request, that would be it, but it was Tristan's request.

Who is this person? So far, there is no clear title. In the final analysis, he is just a dog of the king. Respecting him now is actually respecting the king, and secondly because this man has thousands of troops under his command.

Considering practical factors, the best way to attack the Normans is indeed to launch a cavalry attack that is the specialty of the Frank army after crossing the river.

But were the Normans fools? If the cavalry attacked them and the bandits got on the boat and moved to the river, the cavalry would stand on the bank and hold their arrows, shouting and cursing? Insults and scoldings will not kill these bandits.

Of course, Gilbert didn't want this battle to really involve his own fiefdom, so suddenly he thought of some excuses.

"Uncle," he said deliberately, "I came from Namur and it has taken me three days to get here. If the main force of our army withdraws from Maastricht, wouldn't it take a week to get around to the other side of the river? I have no extravagant hopes for Xiuyin Town. The locals are so scared that they almost drag their families to live in my fiefdom. I am kind and provide them with food. It is impossible for us to cross the river with the boats from Xiuyin Town. , besides, I’m afraid the Normans will have left in their boats within a week.”

Young Gilbert did give Tristan a heads-up, but also sensed a clear rejection.

It is true that the king's army invaded the territory of another great nobleman by force. It was actually a bad rule to break into the territory without explaining it in advance.

Since Gilbert had thousands of reasons to deny the plan of taking a detour to cross the river, this plan, which was not favored by Tristan, was simply abandoned, which further strengthened the implementation of his "fishing plan".

He sighed deeply and said deliberately: "It's true that we shouldn't take a detour. If I were a Norman, I would definitely escape in a rowing boat when I get the chance. That's what those Norman pirates are like unless they are provoked."

The relieved Gilbert let out a sigh of relief: "How to anger them?"

"Go to the riverside area and insult them."

"But if you do that, won't you be attacked by arrows? I'm worried. Besides, can they understand our language?"

"It's a problem. It seems...that we should use some cruel methods."

According to Tristan's original plan, he wanted to hang all the prisoners of war and hang their corpses directly on the walls of the inner city for public display. This would anger the enemy and boost his own morale.

Now I think it should be more radical. It doesn't matter if the enemy can shoot arrows, the key is to provoke them.

The captives should be killed in front of the Normans like cattle and sheep.

"They should be skinned in public!"

Gilbert was shocked and stunned: "Uncle. What you did...isn't it too cruel?"

"No! I think it's just right. Young Earl, you know nothing about the Normans or the Danes. You don't know their blood eagle punishment."

"what is that?"

Tristan made gestures, and Gilbert understood and shuddered.

Maastricht has been completely recaptured by the Franks. More and more cross flags are flying. Soldiers use ropes and wooden bars to make a large number of simple crosses. They are used as markers or placed on the city walls as substitutes for flags. , or simply as a simple tombstone.

The inner city was the most smelly, and there were some stinky corpses in the houses in the outer city. These dead bodies were wrapped in tattered coarse cloth and straw mats, and soldiers dragged them outside the city with horses. They dug pits and buried them collectively, and finally inserted wooden crosses.

The entire city began to be fortified, and the prisoners of war were stripped of their clothes, with only a fig leaf tied around their crotches.

Tristan himself spoke some Frankish words to the prisoners of war, which the Malaren prisoners could not understand at all, and they could hear the death threat from his stern tone. The prisoners of war had no thoughts about their future. The worst they could do was die. Everyone just hoped that they would die happily and that after their death, their brothers on the other side of the river could cross the river and kill these Frankish troops.

Tristan is determined to use these prisoners of war to set up a trap, which he calls "Operation Fishing".

The so-called wooden stakes were set up near the old battlefield in the north of the city and all the prisoners of war were tied to the wooden stakes. It was an open area, most suitable for the cavalry to take advantage of tactics, and the main cavalry was hidden in the houses and streets in the north of the city. As long as the enraged Normans dare to land, what awaits them is a powerful cavalry attack!

But the situation suddenly changed, as Norman reinforcements suddenly appeared from the Aachen Avenue.

This...can't help but make Tristan and Gilbert think about it with horror.

"Why? They will appear from that road?! Have they been to Aachen?!" Tristan no longer dared to think about it.