Rise of Rurik

The joy of the autumn harvest did not come to Mainz. An army of 30,000 was waiting in full formation, and the whole city fell into a state of mourning.

Just outside the city, a large number of carriages were gathering. Most of them were two horses and one cart of supplies, and the sacks were piled neatly, filled with fresh wheat.

There was no time to grind flour anymore, so the whole army relied on cooking rice to satisfy their hunger during the campaign.

For most of the soldiers who came to attack Kaiserslautern, although they were working for the king, even if they won, they would hardly get much money.

What makes them good at fighting? It is the stable supply of large amounts of food and the extremely critical salt.

Compared with Lothair, one of Ludwig's strategic advantages was his firm control of the Salzburg Salt Mine in Bavaria.

The local archbishop acted as the steward of the salt industry. While providing the king with a steady stream of income from selling salt, he also hoarded a large amount of prepared coarse salt for military use.

All the food given to ordinary people is coarse salt, and the magazine has a certain bitterness if it is not completely removed. But salt is salt. Only when you eat enough salt can your body be full of strength.

This is the last day before the whole army sets off. It is today that the great and generous Duke Ludwig of Bavaria rewards the most ordinary peasant soldiers with the ultimate delicious meal.

The wooden bowl is filled with cooked wheat and topped with a handful of salt. This kind of catering is seriously lacking in oil and water, but in these troubled times, the Mainz area has been mired in years of war. Ordinary people can no longer afford bread, and the amount of salt arriving is small and expensive.

Economic blockade is also a natural means of warfare. Since the entire Mainz diocese was firmly controlled by Ludwig, Lothair no longer transported supplies, especially salt, to the territory that once belonged to him.

At first, Ludwig rushed here as an outsider. In order to establish his own authority, he deliberately reduced the input of key materials to this place many years ago.

The Rheinland region, which finally included the entire Diocese of Mainz, became the main battlefield for the two noble princes to compete for power.

There are two extremes on the Laiyinlan battlefield now.

On the other hand, Ludwig rewarded the entire army before the battle and fed the war horses oats with salt. The soldiers were full of strength, and each soldier also brought a little more dry food - black bread cubes that were hard enough to be stone-hard.

The bread is crumbly and hard enough to be broken into crumbs with a tomahawk, even if it is very grindy. No, I don’t know if the bread being distributed was old bread baked at the beginning of the year. It was as hard as a stone and there was no need to worry about it spoiling, so ordinary soldiers tolerated it. It was smashed into pieces and put into a linen bag. The other small bag was a soldier's small salt bag.

A mouthful of bread crumbs and a lick of salt. Such a large-scale act felt that the soldiers were voluntary, and Ludwig had ordered it to be implemented by the king's order.

After all, he got some methods from the Russians that could help improve the military. It is said that if all soldiers prepare some dry food that can be eaten immediately all day long, the army does not need to bury pots for cooking.

"If my army is energetic enough, is sleeping necessary? Those ordinary farmers are just farmers, and they may not be as brave as those peasant soldiers in the past. At least my people don't need to stop to cook for at least three days. It was enough for me to advance quickly and take Kaiserslautern.”

Ludwig fantasized that his army could move as quickly as the Russians. He was unwilling to admit that the speed of those guys came only from their superior longships, because they didn't even have to cook.

Because, during his captivity, he did see the Russians who were fishing. It seemed that they did not even remove the internal organs of the herrings. They stuffed the fish into their stomachs with their big mouths with rotten teeth. They were so barbaric and unreasonable.

On the contrary, we can learn some of their skills, and even use these villains to fight for ourselves. In the future, as the pedantic priests said, we can transform them into "civilized people" as much as possible.

On the other side is Lothair's army, which is stationed in Kaiserslautern and is dominated by Count Metz's army and Baron Saar's army who fled here. Due to the cutoff of transportation and the continued destruction of the war, the area is not yet out of food, but the entire army We must save food.

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The good weather for several days is very conducive to the autumn harvest, and isn't this a good day for fighting?

Even the Saxon army carried large amounts of dry food at the request of Ludwig himself. In fact, he didn't need to teach him about this matter. Duke Liudov of Saxony, who was very familiar with the Russians, was more thorough in his preparation.

As long as peace is restored, the Saxons can quickly regain their strength.

As they were on their way, the army, which was lined up in four columns, almost all carrying spears of similar lengths, and all dressed in black, passed through small towns one after another. How dare the farmers not pay more for food?

Since the march route was largely within Westphalia, this was Liudov's old fiefdom.

However, he did not regard the local people as his relatives. In fact, he regarded the Saxon relatives in the north as "cows". He is smarter than you now. He refuses to impose excessive taxes and instead leads people to actively use the opportunity of the civil war to make money through plunder. Everyone has the opportunity to make a fortune. This is the reason why the people support him.

He deliberately took advantage of ordinary villagers' ignorance of the facts and continued to claim that he was the local earl. He allegedly forcibly obtained a batch of grain in the name of collecting tithes.

He did not and felt no need to tell Ludwig this kind of thing, but after arriving in Mainz, the Saxon army had already started cooking "teppanyaki flatbread".

Compared to Ludwig's 20,000-strong army, the Saxon Army had only 5,000 troops, and their military food reserves should not be underestimated.

In Saxony, people made some money in just one year by boiling sea salt, fishing and selling dried fish, selling wheat, and other goods such as rare leather and honey. But the overall people's livelihood is still in decline, because even ordinary Saxons know that their plight must be due to poor military strength. All the local graf counts and such nobles are often similar in strength to the barons in the south. They would rather go hungry than obtain a large number of weapons. and tools.

Fortunately, the Russians were really selling cheap spearheads, axes, and hammers in Hamburg.

The price of a good spearhead is only six silver coins. According to the requirements of the Russians, the original selling price and transportation costs can be purchased with only sixty pounds of wheat.

The point is that the Russians could easily transport the previous spearhead, but it was more appropriately called a spur than a spearhead.

The iron ingots are first cast from pig iron, then smashed and decarburized using the steel frying method, and finally hammered into sleeved spurs by craftsmen.

As the cost of raw materials continues to decrease, the group of blacksmith workers is growing day by day, and its price has become extremely low in the city of Rus, which is suffering from imported inflation.

Even so, there is a cheaper option, which is the spearhead of direct cast iron casting. At least the Russians would never use it as a spear for fighting, only for hunting.

The price is even cheaper. The Saxon people who only have two silver coins have already asked the Saxon people to remove their moles. Of course, they are not ignorant fools. Half a century of Saxon war has made the locals poor. Are they foodies? However, the two-silver-coin spear was cheap because of its unreliable quality, but they had no choice.

If there is plate armor, all members of the Saxon army will no longer hold shields.

Only Liudov and his own soldiers were heavily armed troops, and the rest of the soldiers did not even have leather armor. Thanks to the large number of wild boars and wild deer in the forest area, some warriors simply used lightly leatherized wild boar skin as leather armor. Even if it smelled bad when worn, it was better than being killed easily.

Everyone has a small buckler tied to his left arm, which can only protect the soldiers from being driven forward. The neck, crotch, and legs are mostly made of cloth. Even worse, they only have walking skirts, which can be exposed if they run too fast. Indecent. There were also many barefoot soldiers. After they arrived in Mainz, many of them had been unlucky enough to wear out the soles of their feet. Here, the barefoot people made a makeshift pair of shoes for themselves out of rags, scraps of leather and hemp rope.

Of course, the Saxons could spend money to go to Hamburg and the emerging Schleswig to buy Oriental moccasins shipped by the Russians. The quality was really good, but the price was enough to buy ten high-quality spearheads.

Liudov devoted everything he had to this seemingly decisive battle.

In the Saxon army camp, the soldiers' spearheads were wiped until they were shiny.

They are not afraid of war, and now they are talking and laughing around the campfire, discussing whether they can change into good clothes and grab a good pair of refurbished shoes after entering Kaiserslautern.

No one mentioned dying in battle, and no one was worried that they would lose.

After all, the Principality of Saxony won the first battle of restoration. No matter how much it cost, they did defeat the Frankish army on the frozen Elbe River.

The enemies at that time are now allies. Even so, many Saxons have regained their arrogance. Although their own weapons are simple, they look down on the army directly led by Ludwig and mainly composed of Bavarians and residents of the area near Mainz.

So they also looked down upon Lothair's army.

In the first two battles of Kaiserslautern, Ludwig and Lothair had mutual victories and defeats. Now it was the Duke of Saxony's turn to lead an army composed almost entirely of Saxons to attack.

Perhaps this kind of moment of war requires the supreme commander to wear a costume and ride a horse to preach among the armies.

Ludwig did, but had no intention of gathering the entire army in a dense mass for a public lecture.

He didn't think it was necessary. Besides, the vanguard army in the first battle was not his own.

In fact, in his opinion, a big reason for the chaos in 840 was that he broke their bottom line in the Norman world. Liudov was originally ordered to crusade against the rebellious Danes, but now they became allies, and he also made a humiliating peace treaty with the Danes.

Ludwig hated this generation of Dukes of Saxony. According to his plan, he had to make this title himself, and now...

It’s hard to describe in one word.

Liudov, who was still a count at that time, had only 500 elite soldiers, but he had already shown extraordinary military mobilization power. Not to mention the combat effectiveness of the army this guy raised, he was the only one who could raise an army of five thousand in a short period of time. All the nobles who were loyal to him were afraid of this, and only this Liudov could do so.

This was an unexpected surprise, which inflated Ludwig's confidence. Besides, if there is still no major progress in the battle this year, it will inevitably mean bloody internal strife between the Duke of Saxony and the Count of Metz. One is a powerful nobleman who is not loyal enough, and the other is an enemy with extraordinary strength.

Of course, it would be foolish to give up before fighting. Although it was necessary to prepare for the worst, the top priority was that Ludwig decided to go to the Saxon military camp to personally boost their morale early in the morning on the day of departure.

"Perhaps I should have lied and said there was a lot of gold in Kaiserslautern. These forest savages would be as mad as wild beasts."

No, the morning fog has not yet dissipated. Wearing a purple robe, a golden crown on his head, and a jeweled Ross steel sword hanging from a gold cowhide belt, Ludwig appeared on the stage riding a horse, while the warrior behind him held up Charlemagne's sword. The Three Lions battle flag entered the Sachs military camp where the troops had already begun to line up in a very high-profile manner.

He was surprised that these troops were already in action in the early morning.

"Are you that eager to get rich? That's fine." He smiled softly and evilly, and then ordered his followers to announce the coming of the king with great fanfare.

The military camp immediately became extremely noisy. Liudov, who had not yet dressed, hurried out of the wooden shed. When he saw Ludwig, who was wearing purple and riding a big horse, he subconsciously saluted hurriedly based on aristocratic etiquette - half-kneeling.

"Get up! You are the Duke, and I give you permission to speak directly to me at any time."

"No! I'd better look up to you." Liu Duofu didn't take it seriously and asked: "I'm going on an expedition today. Your Majesty came to my camp. Is there something important to say?"

"Something's wrong! Now I still want to see your army! You must know that your people will be the vanguard. If your morale drops, I won't worry."

"Don't worry. The Saxon army has already been prepared, and I will win! Please..."

"How?" Ludwig asked.

"Just as you promised, if our army wins the first battle, the entire Kaiserslautern property will belong to us."

"Okay." Ludwig answered decisively without even thinking. This decisiveness was very reassuring. "That's why I'm here, I want to reiterate this to your troops, and I have some details I'm about to tell you."

"What details are those?"

"About more wealth. Gather your lower nobles, or your army! It's best... I can see the true appearance of the Saxon army after the fog dissipates."

"Then let's assemble. Originally, I wanted to assemble and leave."

What else could Ludwig say? It happened that the army gathered together to show him the majestic military power of the Saxons.

The fog slowly dissipated, and a dark army gradually revealed its true appearance.

The whole army wore black clothes, and the limited horses were all black horses. The Saxon army often wore a black leather or cloth hat. It had no defense and was only used to keep out the cold and wind. Now it is also for neatness and appearance.

Less than 30% of the soldiers had iron helmets, but they stood in order, and a "forest" with a cold light was extremely dazzling in the sun.

This was the first time Ludwig saw such a gathering in Saxony. He didn't take it seriously when they were marching, but now what he saw was clearly a strong black army.

Bad memories that had been buried for two years came back.

Although he was riding a tall horse, what he felt was not the loyalty of his princes.

He had to think carefully: Saxony is like this, I can still suppress him now, if I die, can my son suppress Saxony?

“I hope this army can capture Kaiserslautern and pay a heavy price for it,” he thought.

Ludwig was quiet for a while, with his legs clamped on the horse's belly. He showed off his purple robe proudly, and suddenly tightened his reins and immediately shouted filial piety in front of the Saxon army.

It seems like this man is the Duke of Saxony! Of course, one of the main reasons for the outbreak of war in the north was that Ludwig wanted to be the real Duke of Saxony with monopoly power. His temperament was also the trigger of the Frankish Civil War. The Duke of Alemany was vacant. Ludwig decided to seize the title. Even if he couldn't get it, he couldn't let his eldest brother Lothair get it.

Pairs of blue eyes stared at this majestic monarch. No one thought he was great, even if he was gorgeously dressed.

"Kaiserslautern! That is my palace! My palace has been occupied, and the gold and silver I left inside have been plundered by the enemy! There are a hundred chests there, full of gold coins. I give it to you Saxons. Opportunity! Attack Kaiserslautern, you take everything you want! I allow you to loot freely, you only need to give me an empty palace..."

Ludwig continued to repeat these words, but weren't these all discussed in the past? As for the so-called one hundred boxes of silver coins, this is the first time I have heard of it.

People became more and more excited, and Liudov himself was the most excited among them.

He heard it very clearly. Holding the hilt of his sword, he went straight to the monarch on horseback and asked eagerly: "Is everything you said true?"

"I won't lie. Unless... all those gold and silver were taken away by the damn Metz people. If that's the case, what do you think?" Ludwig looked at him sideways, his arrogance undiminished.

"Then let's fight!" Liudof sighed. He estimated that this was Ludwig's deliberate rhetoric to seduce the army. I'm afraid he also said the same thing about his own army.

However, what if there are really those hundred boxes of silver coins? If the Saxon army wins the battle, they can immediately buy countless good things from Ross, and the current decline will be gone.

It is fair to say that the morale of the Saxon army was stronger. No one was grateful to Ludwig, they just wanted to make a fortune following their own duke.

The Saxon army camp made a lot of noise, but the Russians stationed by the river could no longer hear it. Because the blue fox, the black fox, Sophia, and even the princess Gisla, who suddenly changed her identity and renounced her ancestors, had already left in the longship.

The sun was shining, and Liu Dofu, who was full of confidence, stood up straight. Behind him was a dense jungle of spears.

His sword pointed directly south: "Saxons! Advance!"