Rise of Rurik

The forcibly organized villagers were dispersed by arrows. They went straight to the village, found random houses and crawled into them to protect themselves.

At this moment, Vadim could no longer maintain his courage. He rolled and crawled on the snow and retreated. His embarrassed appearance was also seen by his soldiers.

The onlookers didn't care to comment on their leader's embarrassment. Their own situation was just as bad.

The frozen riverside is no longer a safe area. If you stay there any longer, you will sooner or later be shot by the Russians in the fortress.

However, their arrows actually hit here!

There was a lot of snow covering his body, and even the snow was mixed into his leather boots.

The nervous Vadim had no choice but to rely on a private house. He was panting and mouthing dirty words: "Damn Russians, I will skin you! No! I will burn you all to ashes tomorrow!"

The Smolensk soldiers who were also looking for a place to hide saw that their boss was actually incompetent and furious. They were not sorry or angry. They were so shocked that they were glad that they had not been hit by the loss.

A soldier wearing leather armor rolled over and crawled towards him. He stroked his beard and couldn't hide his nervousness: "Chief, what should we do? Their arrows are not sharp, they are really difficult to deal with."

"Are you scared?!" Vadim grabbed the man's neck and asked with angry eyes.

"Ahem..."

"Forget it." Vadim reached out again and pushed the soldiers to one side: "We will attack as usual tomorrow. Damn... they are despicable! They are indeed a group of bandits. Only bandits can carry out sneak attacks like this."

He was so bold and called the defenders of Novopolodsk Fort despicable, but Vadim himself was also quite despicable.

The majority of soldiers still don't care to comment on these moral issues. The war has broken out, and any dirty means can be used as long as it can kill the enemy.

The Smolensk soldiers suffered a sneak attack in the evening. Its damage was negligible and it had a big impact on everyone's morale.

Vadim took another rest and ordered the armored men to assemble again.

Now, there are still five hundred soldiers wearing cowhide armor soaked in pine resin. The soldiers have gathered in an absolutely safe place. Taking advantage of the last light of the evening, he stands among his brothers.

The faces were restless, and they were clearly aware of the enemy's sneak attack just now. Standing here, Vadim could clearly feel their emotions. He raised his hands in the air: "Everyone, look at me!"

A pair of eyes searched for the direction of the sound and aimed at their leader.

"Tomorrow! is the day of the decisive battle! When the sun rises, we will light the fire. The fire will consume their fortress, and all the Rus in it will turn to ashes.

Praise the God of Fire! God Peron is on our side!

Perón! "

He shouted the name of the god in front of everyone. At first he was the only one shouting, and soon his armored followers followed him.

Hundreds of people collectively chanted "Peron" rhythmically, and some ordinary tribal soldiers who were watching the excitement also joined in the shouting. The once-frightened people regained their spirits, and their low morale was suddenly lifted up by Vadim.

He was happy to see the current lively scene, as if the God of Fire had used some kind of divine power to boost the morale of the army.

"It seems! We have to bring out some sacrifices! Sacrifice to God."

What is a sacrifice? Didn’t you already offer sacrifices at the Gniezdovo Altar? Could it be that the leader wants to sacrifice himself with the knife in his left hand again?

Vadim quickly answered.

In his opinion, the fleeing villagers were just a bunch of rabble, and it was totally unreasonable to expect them to fight the Russians in the fortress.

However, these guys can act as "human shields" and block many arrows from the Smolensk army.

Besides, these Polotsk villagers have lost their use value. On the contrary, for his own power, it is a good thing that the villagers' physical disappearance is a good thing, so that he can take the mature fields cultivated by the locals as a reward in exchange for the efforts of his army.

fear! Only fear can make those villagers willing to fight for their lives.

Cruel as it may be, when soldiers return to the village to capture the escaped villagers,

Citizens, as many as twenty people, were escorted to an empty space in the largest village.

Hundreds of villagers who were recaptured were firmly controlled here.

Almost all the Smolensk army gathered here, and they stood densely packed under the night. At this moment, a large number of bonfires have been lit in the village with intricate roads, and with the strong reflection from the snow, the world is illuminated very brightly.

A large number of pine trees were piled into hillocks, and a large number of pine branches were added to make the flames stronger.

Suddenly people saw that their leader seemed to have become a high priest, his shirtless body twisting mysteriously in the face of the blazing fire.

He stretched out his left hand and held a dagger in his right hand. His twisted movements were imitating the High Priest of Smolensk. The strange behavior was eye-catching.

He was an avenger. In full view of everyone, the sharp tip of the knife once again poked the wound on his left hand that had not fully healed. He endured the pain and clenched his fists, looking around with firm eyes, while blood kept dripping from his fists...

He looked at his bleeding left hand again, and then glanced contemptuously at the twenty people who were tied with ropes and forced to the ground by the soldiers.

Twenty people! Vadim is going to perform a human sacrifice!

However, he did not say this publicly.

Vadim boasted that he had sufficient reasons to execute criminals. In front of all the soldiers, he began to detail the crimes of the villagers being escorted.

"Those who run away and are cowards should be killed! These villagers do not dare to fight, so what is the use of them? Now, these people will be executed. You listen, especially you villagers!" He emphasized specially, while pointing his sword casually at the trembling people. People standing: "You will still be the main attacker in tomorrow's battle! You must attack. Anyone who dares to retreat will be mercilessly killed by my people. Now, execution."

When the swordsmen and axemen were ready, they cut off the poor villagers' necks and spilled their blood on the square land that had been dried and covered with snow.

The villagers couldn't help but turn their faces away, unable to look directly at the inexplicable death of their relatives and friends.

"Don't dodge! Watch them all!" Vadim yelled again. Already extremely murderous, he simply approached the villagers with his sword in hand, and casually pulled out the profile of the person he had just seen, whose face he couldn't bear to look at.

One more person was sacrificed, and this person was assassinated by Vadim himself.

The villagers have lost everything. They feel that living is a disaster and death is a relief.

The fire burned their faces, and the hearts of these Polotsk people were as cold as ice as they witnessed the tragic corpses of their companions and the frenzied Smolensk troops.

At least the morale of the Smolensk army was at its peak.

Human sacrifice is an extreme method. In the Smolensk community, it is interpreted as a great sacrifice that must be made for a great victory. Only when faced with some extreme challenges will the leader resort to such a method.

[In view of the general environment,

Vadim is so generous. This is the first time in this life for most of the soldiers to see such a battle.

They really didn't know that Vadim was extremely sick at this moment. He didn't have to be so extreme. In the end, twenty-one people were killed in front of the fire.

With such an extreme sacrifice, will God Peron abandon Smolensk? No! Definitely not.

That night, a large number of bonfires were lit around the largest village of Polotsk.

Not only was a large army with high morale gathered in the village, but all kinds of siege objects were also prepared for tomorrow's decisive battle.

The most important thing was the wooden carts piled with wooden poles. In order to facilitate tomorrow's battle, the carts were piled with dry firewood, rags, and even butter wrapped in cloth.

The Smolensk army demolished civilian houses and made a surprise attack on a number of large anti-arrow shields.

A large number of sharpened wooden sticks became the weapons of the militiamen.

Vadim was stunned to piece together a "behemoth" with a strength of 3,700 people. Among them, who is the elite, who is the rabble, and who may be the one who adapts to the wind, I am afraid only he knows best.

"I have no way out, either win or die!"

Thinking of this, Vadim, who was in a complicated mood, had no intention of sleeping and fought a lot.

The same is true for soldiers. Who can sleep soundly without heart or soul on the eve of the decisive battle?

However, the army occupying the village of Polotsk made a huge noise, and the brightness of the bonfire there reached its peak.

The sudden shouts after nightfall turned into a continuous roar, so loud that every defender of the fortress could tell that the enemy was about to attack the city.

Standing at a high place, Vesuend faced the red fire and the shouts coming and going due east. He was not afraid at all, but wanted to laugh.

It is really a torture to guard the fortress and wait for the enemy to take the initiative to attack.

"Tomorrow at the earliest and the day after tomorrow at the latest, Vadim, are you really planning to take action? Then, we will stay with you until the end."

Even though they knew they were at an absolute disadvantage in numbers, the morale of the defenders was not bad at all.

Fearing that Vadim would become ruthless and decide to carry out a large-scale night attack, a large number of fortress defenders did not want to sleep that night.

On the wooden city wall, warriors holding crossbows leaned on the wall and took a nap wearing leather clothes. Under the city wall, Danish warriors armed with ordinary short wooden bows could climb onto the city at any time to assist in the battle.

The women in the fortress started cooking porridge in the evening, and they would continue to cook porridge. Due to the current emergency situation, they had to pray that these blond Varyag men of various ages could persevere to ensure that they always have sufficient physical strength. Especially necessary.

The gate of the fortress was blocked by a wooden cart with its wheels removed, and a large amount of snow was filled in. Vesuend was convinced that the weakest point of the fortress was strong enough.

He also had a sudden idea to tie some large wooden blocks with ropes to create a batch of simple rolling logs and stones. This is to prevent the enemy from making a simple long ladder to climb the wall directly. There are not many throwable objects in the city, and useful throwables should be recycled as much as possible.

In the eyes of all the defenders, the enemy must launch a strong attack, or try to break down the gate, or try to climb the city to fight in order to win by relying on numerical superiority.

In any case, the defenders did not think of retreating. They clearly have a way to retreat. They all evacuate the Novopolodsk Fort. They can now take some luggage and leave the city and go straight to the lower reaches of the frozen West Dvina River.

They can, and their back path is not threatened at all.

Vesuend would never be like this, and neither would those Danish armed merchants.

This night, most of the soldiers from both sides who were about to fight stayed up all night, welcoming the cold dawn amid nervousness and anxiety.

The wheat porridge that had been boiled overnight had turned into a lake of viscous slurry. The defenders immediately took out their own bowls and ate the hot rebel food, and their sluggish spirits quickly perked up.

The same was true on the other side of the frozen Polota River, where the Smolensk army was having its last meal before the attack.

Including the local villagers who were about to fight, they also had their last breakfast.

The wooden bowl was slammed down by Vadim. He ate comfortably and ordered his subordinates: "Stop dawdling! Let's go! Take out the firewood from the bonfire and light our wooden cart! Fire attack! Start!"

Suddenly, the army took action.

The sudden big movement startled the defenders on the other side, and all the warriors holding bows hurriedly climbed onto the city wall to fight under the command of Vesuend himself.

After a while, a large number of squirming figures appeared on the other side of the ice.

The more they gather together, the worse things get.

"What is that?! How do I see the flames moving?!" Vesuend said to himself.

"Boss!" the sighted soldier exclaimed, "That's a car! It's a burning car! The smoke is so strange."

"Car? What is Vadim doing?"

The situation is still unclear, and the Smolensk army is still gathering. The enemy is indeed a behemoth.

The soldiers walked out of the cold houses one after another. Regardless of whether they slept last night or not, the excitement of today's decisive battle suddenly dispelled all embarrassment.

A large number of ragged villagers armed with sharpened wooden sticks stood at the front of the array, behind them were well-equipped leather armored warriors.

In the end, thirty wooden carts were collected, which exceeded Vadim's estimate and made him more confident.

It takes a lot of time to make fresh pine wood burn, but if you use dry wood from demolished houses, they can ignite quickly.

. Thanks to the butter, the fire on the wooden cart was getting hotter and hotter. It was pine wood mixed with burning butter and rosin. The smell was pungent and harsh, with orange flames flying around and white smoke billowing. It was necessary to push such a monster through the glacier. It's really a test.

If the villagers who were the leader were told that they would die, they would definitely have a negative attitude.

If they were told that they could retreat after pushing all the burning wooden carts under the enemy's fortress, they would probably do their best to complete this and then evacuate as soon as possible.

Seeing that the soldiers had almost gathered together, Vadim suddenly became angry and raised the Ross steel sword he had captured, pointing the sword directly at the Novopolodsk Fort: "Smolensk warriors! Let's go!"

The black-toned behemoth began to move accompanied by a large number of burning wooden cars.

Visuende, who was still confused at first, suddenly realized what was happening. Standing on a high place, he was trembling with shock for the first time: "Oops! They want to burn the fortress down!"

"Brothers! Shoot arrows! Shoot them and stop the burning wooden carts from approaching our city walls!"

Vesuende was already organizing the warriors on the city wall, not sparing any arrows to miss, so he quickly jumped off the wall.

His reaction was fast enough and his mind was flexible enough. At this moment, all the snow that had not been cleared out in the fortress became treasure.

While the enemy's burning wooden carts were still approaching, he had already organized people to transport snow to the city wall in various containers.

On the other hand, the attacking Smolensk army was already rushing in at the risk of missing arrows.

The soldiers armed with sharpened short sticks simply used the weapons as non-weapons and inserted them directly into the gaps of the wooden cart to act as push rods to push the wooden cart forward. They burned the wooden cart to cover their bodies and avoid being burned by the fire.

The increasingly accurate arrows from the defenders began to hit their targets. The defenders did not care about the identity of the attacking soldiers. In this critical moment, any attacker who dared to attack should be killed.

Relying on round shields and special temporary arrow-proof shields, the real Smolensk army formed a shield wall. They moved slowly to withstand the loss well.

They took one step at a time, even if under the ice they stepped on was the quietly flowing Bolota River.

They forced the local villagers to attack with armed force. The latter could only brave the possibility of death at any time and continue to drag the burning wooden carts to the other side of the river one after another, and then continue to push hard in the snow.

The defenders' arrows are becoming more and more accurate, but the number of crossbowmen is too few! There were some squirming wounded soldiers left on the ice, and they were still attacking.

Finally, the first burning wooden cart crashed into the fortress wooden wall.

Suddenly thick smoke rushed towards the battlements. The soldier who accidentally inhaled the smoke fell down and coughed violently, covering his throat. In just this moment, his fair face was blackened by the smoke, and his blond hair was also blackened. Compared with the fire, the smoke was now more lethal, and the defenders' crossbowmen were smoked to the point of losing their combat ability in a short period of time.

The successful attack of smoke and dust was Vadim's unexpected joy, and the fire attack became secondary for the time being.

Visuend was stunned as he choked heavily. He covered his mouth with his sleeve, looked at the soldiers in the city with an extremely ugly expression, and suddenly tore his throat: "Quickly put out the damn fire with snow."

However, few people responded to him for the time being, and there were only brothers lying on their stomachs and coughing under the battlements.

Vadim would not let go of the crucial opportunity. All the burning wooden carts were pushed under the fortress with unexpected smoothness. Thick smoke surrounded the east wall of the fortress and spread to the north and south walls.

Those armed villagers who completed their mission did not make any further progress. On the one hand, they were forced to fight, and on the other hand, the mission had been completed. If they did not retreat, would they stay here and be burned to death?

Vadim even stopped the army.

He felt that the damn siege was the main reason for his loss of troops. The fire might burn all the Russians and the fortress to death.

The cunning and despicable Russians are not necessarily willing to make roasted deer. It would be good to force all the defenders out to fight with them in an open area, so that they can annihilate this group of Russians with the advantage of Jedi forces.

So, Vadim's main army inserted the arrow-proof shields tied with wooden strips and hemp ropes directly into the snow on the other side. The soldiers stood densely packed, watching the fire and smoke engulfing the fortress, while holding on to their weapons and preparing to level the ground. Fight.