Rise of Rurik

The Ross army put up a huge formation. When the fog completely dissipated and the sun shone on the faces of these brave men, nothing more could be given to their opponents than the terror from the abyss.

The sound of horns, drums and shouts, as well as a huge low roar in the wilderness, made the Ross army even more majestic.

The flags were flying, and the soldiers were beating their shields with swords and axes. All the soldiers were eager to try, just because a large enemy group appeared in front of them.

Under the sun, Rurik squinted his eyes and tried to see the details in the distance.

Thanks to the clear air here, after the fog cleared, although he couldn't see the faces of the enemies clearly, he could also see their appearance.

"Hey, a bunch of beggars."

He groaned secretly.

At this moment, Rurik was walking in front of the Chinese army's position, his king's flag inlaid with gold filigree flying high. More Rus' flags stood guard, and there were bound to be some flying wherever the army came.

Many flags were deliberately fluttered, which was very different from today's European armies, or that the armies of other countries did not have the luxury to use a large amount of neat cloth for pure decoration or to build momentum.

The flags are like a forest, flapping in the wind. They greatly enhance the momentum of the army, and also cover up their own military appearance, so that the enemy cannot show reality at a glance.

Behind Rurik is his army of shooters arranged in a linear array.

The Sixth Flag Troop, the Finnish Flag Troop and craftsmen who temporarily came to operate heavy weapons were ordered to line up in a long queue, waiting for the king's firing order at any time under the command of Jevlo.

As long as he saw those enemies, strong contempt would occupy Jevro's mind.

"Your Majesty, I see that the enemy is huge, but unfortunately they are all a group of weaklings. In my opinion, as long as my men shoot a few times, I can let the infantry clean up the mess."

Rurik leaned over and took a serious look at the short old subordinate, with a cautious attitude: "I don't think the enemy can do it. But we must be more cautious. Let's continue to move forward. Wait for the enemy to be within the range of your longbow, and then wait for my news. .”

"As commanded."

"You go now and inform Kawei to prepare his slingshots. Charge me now and load the javelins. All bull trebuchets are equipped with stone bullets."

"As commanded."

The entire Ross army moved slowly, belonging to the Ross Principality troops and Finnish troops directly commanded by the king. Their ranks were very orderly.

On the other hand, the teams of the Swedish allies seemed to be stretched thin. Thanks to the fact that these people were always surrounded by the army of the Principality of Ross, the pace of these two thousand people was not disordered.

Often you can judge what a strong army is just from the marching array. The frontline warriors on the Ross Army Formation, whether they are sword and shield bearers or archers, whether they have armor or not, are all wearing white-based robes. From a distance, they look like It's just a white line advancing slowly.

As the distance from the enemy approached, Ross's warriors became more and more excited.

Today, they can kill enemies freely, let the gods witness their bravery in the sun, and earn merit for themselves.

On the other side of the battlefield, for the people of Wissingse Island, thousands of armed fishermen, men and women, were driven forward by the warlord and tyrant troops. The more they moved, the weaker their legs became.

Are these fishermen inherently weak?

On the contrary, if they paddled to the coast of the Frankish Kingdom, they would transform into Viking pirates, robbing families without mercy.

However, they have experienced too many disasters in recent days. The invaders swept from the north of the lake to the south of the lake. Now they finally see the true appearance of the invaders. It is such an incredible sight!

In a sense, these islanders meeting the Ross Kingdom Army are no different from meeting aliens.

They even ignored the possibility of a large fleet sailing in reverse direction to the south, and the possibility of attackers stealing homes by water.

As for the warlord and tyrant Karl the "Crazy Bear", he had no time to worry about the situation on the rear.

His subordinates were full of confidence just now, but now their legs and feet are trembling.

One of his subordinates walked into Karl and said, "Boss, they have a lot of troops. We're afraid we won't have the advantage."

Immediately, someone comforted himself: "There are many of them, so they may not necessarily have strong fighting power."

What else could Carl say? The intruders were uniformly dressed and walked together like the tide invading the bay, rushing towards them with an unstoppable momentum.

The enemy clearly has not organized a shield wall yet, but now the pace is more orderly than if they had formed a shield wall.

Karl tried hard to remember that even in the melee with the Danes, those strong Danes did not fight like this.

It's really embarrassing to say that Carl still can't confirm the identity of the intruder. They were so weird. As a Jotalan, Karl knew what Swedish warriors looked like. Now comparing them with the Swedes in his memory, he was extremely confused.

Only in terms of momentum, Karl felt that he had been defeated. He was mentally prepared to die in battle today. If he had to die, he would lead his whole family to fight and die for glory. Then at least you have to know the identity of your enemy before you die.

After all, the battle hasn't started yet. With an army of thousands of people at hand, he can always fight a fierce battle.

He has a bottom-line optimism, which is betting that his fighting can cause a large number of deaths to his opponents, and the enemy is more likely to be unable to withstand heavy casualties and evacuate, so that he can still end up with a miserable victory.

This... requires a big gamble.

On the Wisingser Island, Karl ordered his men to form a shield wall with a width of only one person on the front. He arranged the most elite warriors here. Not only did each warrior wear chain mail and a leather helmet, but their huge round shields were also painted colorfully.

The sunlight reflected dazzling light on these armored warriors. There was no doubt that the entire Ross army noticed the opponent's troop movement and saw these reflections clearly.

Jevro, who had already informed Kawei, returned. He saw the enemy's majestic movement of troops and couldn't help but become vigilant.

He approached Rurik and told him again: "Kawei has been notified. Moreover, I saw that the enemy had many armored warriors, so I asked my subordinates to use armor-piercing arrows."

"Well done. I wanted to inform you, but there's no need now." Rurik nodded in praise.

The distance between the two armies was shortening, and Rurik frequently stretched out his right hand and gave the enemy a thumbs-up.

Naturally, he was not praising the enemy as worthy of admiration or anything, he was just using this simple method to estimate the distance.

But Ross has a more sophisticated instrument here.

Each torsion slingshot is equipped with a wooden optical rangefinder, because the farther the distance, the smaller the influence of the reference object. The reference object here is none other than human beings. The land strike target of the slingshot was the enemy soldier. Kawei controlled a wooden instrument to frequently measure the distance until the enemy appeared, only about 200 meters away from the military formation.

Kawe simply reported to Rurik himself: "Your Majesty, they are already within the shooting range of all weapons. We can't fight them."

"Don't rush yet."

After that, the trumpets sounded, and the trumpeters blew the trumpets in a special rhythm to order the entire army to pause.

After all, everyone had walked for a while, and every soldier had consumed some energy. The enemy was right in front. Obviously, the enemy was not willing to charge mindlessly. The Ross army took this opportunity to take a break.

Of course, the enemy does not respond when charging. Defensive counterattacks have always been the specialty of the Russian army.

Just hearing the horn, the march of the army, which was coming like a tidal wave, suddenly stopped. Their pause was so sudden that the wide cover could easily accept the command of the commander.

Carl asked himself that he simply couldn't do it.

Compared to the calmness of his opponent, his own army is just a big chaotic mess. Karl had never commanded an army of this size, and the only tactic he could think of was to drive armed fishermen and rush forward in a chaotic manner to cause a fight with the enemy.

Since the enemy stopped suddenly, what is he going to do?

Karl didn't know, but this was the good opportunity he hoped for.

"Brothers!" He raised his battle ax high, which scared one of his subordinates to take the lead in charging.

A dozen cronies quickly gathered around Karl.

"Are you the only ones who respond?" Karl looked around and sighed slightly: "That's fine. Come with me, I want to meet with their leader."

As soon as this statement came out, everyone was frightened and called it ridiculous.

"Boss, why is this so? If you go and there is an ambush, who will command us?"

One person said this, and everyone else said the same thing.

"Are you worried about me?" The battle ax stood on the wet grass. Karl held it and looked around: "Since you are really worried about me, some of you should go and ask me the identity of the enemy. I know who is attacking me." My lake.”

"..." Everyone was silent.

"What? You were all frightened by the enemy. What idiots! Where is the momentum you used to deal with fishermen? Are you scared now when you encounter real enemies? Forget it, let me go. How can I fight with you cowards? Gotta win the battle?”

With that said, Karl dragged his battle ax and walked over. Upon seeing this, he was immediately followed by as many as twenty armored guards.

More people expressed concern about this and just watched the boss's actions.

A guy wearing a bear skin and a bear head is too conspicuous. The tall Rurik is now wearing a reinforced leather helmet and a robe of the same color as a soldier, but he looks inconspicuous.

The nervous soldiers launched an attack against their opponents, and they quickly formed a shield wall vigilantly.

Kawei ordered all slingshots and trebuchets to be loaded immediately, and Jevlo ordered armor-piercing arrows to be placed on the bow handles immediately and thrown out on command.

There were even young soldiers from the Sixth Flag, carrying steel-arm crossbows that were strung up, and spontaneously half-knelt beside Rurik, aiming at those who kept approaching.

"Get out of the way, they must be here to negotiate. All of you, step back."

The crossbow warriors were ordered to evade for the time being. After a moment, some Ross berserkers wearing bearskin and bear heads stood beside Rurik.

Look at them. These people are the standing army of the Kingdom of Rus. Their bucklers are different from other citizen soldiers. They are all painted with the raven emblem symbolizing Odin.

They opened a gap for Rurik, and he took off his iron helmet and put on his own richly decorated polar bear fur to inform the visitor of his noble status.

Sneak attack? An approaching enemy might do the same.

Rurik was not false at all. He was tall and majestic. Even in Rus, where people's lives were becoming more and more prosperous, he was still like a little giant. The "bear man" who was approaching with a tomahawk, even though he was dressed like a brown bear, was not as tall and strong as himself.

Undoubtedly, "Crazy Bear" Carl saw a gap in the raven shield formation, and a blond giant dressed in gorgeous and yet heroic clothes came out.

He actually had a smile on his face and opened his arms as if to welcome guests.

Don't be fooled by this friendly performance, just because there are armored warriors behind them.

Karl stopped and saw him holding the long-handled battle ax with both hands, and then stabbed the handle into the soft grass. The rusty black ax blade was facing Rurik himself.

Karl opened his rotten teeth and yelled with bad breath: "You! Who are you?!" Then he pointed at the gorgeously dressed Rurik: "Who are you?! You look like a noble person. Could it be, Is he the commander of this huge army?"

Rurik was furious after being pointed at. Now he could immediately order his men to pick up the crossbows they had put down. In just the blink of an eye, a man dressed like a bear who didn't know the heights of the world could be shot dead.

Suddenly, Rurik remembered the confession of his previous prisoner.

The overlord of Lake Wettern is a guy in bearskin. Could it be this man? What is his name? Is it Carl?

"You!?" Rurik also pointed with his right hand and asked, "Are you Karl? The leader of the Yotalans here?"

"Oh? Do you recognize me?"

"Sure enough, it's you! Karl, you will die here."

Karl had no doubt at all about his opponent's deep murderous intention, but now that his opponent spoke frankly, he was still surprised. But because of this, Karl was not afraid.

The long-handled battle ax was already on the ground. Karl took off his sword and ax in front of everyone, and even threw down the knife used for eating. He didn't mean to surrender, he just wanted to have a good talk with the enemy in a peaceful way.

He just walked towards Rurik with open arms, even refusing to follow his entourage.

As he walked, he said: "Leader of the invaders! You look very young! What do you think? Let's have a chat with me! Don't worry, I don't have an ambush, and I don't even have a dagger on me. If you have the guts, just move forward, and we will Let’s have a nice chat.”

Talk to this guy? Why. How old is this animal? !

Rurik shook his head and shouted to his face: "Stupid Karl! Stop, you don't know my purpose at all. Say what you want to say now."

"No! Young attacker, I don't want to talk to a coward. If you are a warrior, just step out of the protection of your shield wall and let us talk face to face."

Is this an army being defeated? But why should the noble king listen to the demands of a gangster leader?

Yevluo took the opportunity to interject: "There is nothing to talk about with this guy. Let me lead someone to shoot him, and then we will kill all the enemies in front of us."

"No!" Rurik shook his head, but instead called Grund.

"Your Majesty, what are your orders?" Grund asked.

"Take your brothers and take down the bear, and bring it to me. Pay attention and catch the bear alive for me."

"I obey. But this person's entourage..."

"Ignore them, if they dare to save the Lord, they will be chopped to death."

"As commanded."

Suddenly, a gap appeared in the Russian shield wall, and a group of strong men suddenly rushed out. It was when Karl was caught off guard that he was directly suppressed by the strong men's body. Karl himself was strong, but the Russian soldiers who captured the king were also strong men.

This incident shocked Karl's entourage and froze on the spot, while the Weisinger Island army in the rear fell directly into chaos. If it were not for the pressure of those armored soldiers, the entire army formation would have collapsed. Fortunately, Karl, a warlord and tyrant, had a ruling group. If he himself was captured, one of his cronies could replace him.

But now the whole group has no choice. The port has been burned, all the ships are damaged, and the island has no trees at all. What is very bad is that if the attackers control the lake, the entire island will become a hunger hell in less than ten days, and everyone will starve. It is precisely because of this that Carl desperately hopes to chat with the intruder in an attempt to get a decent result. It's a pity that I made the wrong bet...

The mad bear Karl had his bear-headed helmet removed and was led directly in front of Rurik.

The wooden handle of the javelin pinned his calf, and he was forced to kneel on his knees. A strong man held down his shoulders. Karl couldn't move and felt that he was about to be killed.

"You! You have no honor! You are persecuting a warrior, which Odin will not tolerate!"

"He's full of curses." Rurik shook his head and signaled: "You all stand down and let this guy stand up."

Karl then patted himself and stood up, and then asked the soul question: "You! You! Who are you?!"

"Haha." Liuli looked down at Ke and smiled contemptuously. Seeing the legendary Karl at such a close distance, he was actually a head taller than him. "It's okay to tell you. I am the King of Rus! The King of Sweden! Even the ruler of the Eastern Slavic world. I personally killed the old Danish king Hafgen. I conquered Gotland and basically killed those guys. Now , this king will conquer the entire Jotalan this year. Do you...do you know?"

Karl's eyes widened as if they were about to burst out, and his mouth trembled: "It's incredible... that King of Denmark was actually killed by you. Are you actually the new King of Sweden?"

"I am Rurik. I am the king of Sweden and the king of Rus. I have conquered you Götalanders. I am the hope of all Scandinavia. I am Rurik who is blessed by Odin. Karl, I am The king mercifully told you his identity. My purpose is to conquer the vast territory, not to kill you. Now I can give you a chance... to surrender to me!"

"Surrender?"

"Exactly. Take off your leather jacket, take off your boots, then take off all your clothes, and kneel down in front of me like a sheared sheep and kiss my boots."

"you!"

In an instant, the guardsmen present shouted one after another, demanding that Karl surrender obediently, and even kicked his knees violently. Karl's knees were slightly bent and he stood up abruptly.

These actions proved that Karl did not want to surrender, especially when he was humiliated like an animal and surrendered, which was absolutely impossible.

Rurik also knew that something like Caesar's approach to the Gallic chiefs was to force his opponents to fight to the death. He wanted to put on a show for the large group of Swedish nobles in the alliance, so that the opponents would either surrender in extreme humiliation or fight to the death until all Killed. No matter what the opponent chooses, King Rus will receive great honor.

Karl stood stubbornly and shouted: "Your actions are appalling, you... will be cursed by Odin!"

"Am I evil?" Rurik deliberately mocked: "I love your land, and I love the people even more. You are a stupid ruler who wants to force those people to go to the battlefield and be killed by me. They obviously can As our subjects, you can enjoy a very good life. But you have to take them to death."

"They? They are not my subjects." Karl said truthfully, "But this lake is my territory, and these fishermen just happen to live in my territory. They pay me tribute, and I let them live. You invaded my lake. , we will fight you to the death! Unless you surrender like me and pay me tribute. Even if you kill me, my people will fight you to the death. Odin is on top, he will remember your despicable actions today."

"Really? Carl. Some prisoners told you that you are indeed not a good ruler, but a group of bandits and pirates who have occupied this lake. Of course I can kill you easily now, but there is no need. Carl, after today, this Lake Wettern is part of the Kingdom of Ross, and will be included in the management of the Swedish part of the Kingdom in the future. I gave you the opportunity to find Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan.com. It's a pity that you didn't surrender. So everything in the future has nothing to do with you."

"How about we have a duel!" Karl suddenly had an idea.

"Duel? You are not qualified. You are just a pirate who dares to ask for a duel with the King of the North. Forget it! I have decided, I want to let you go back. I want to fight openly, and your army cannot be without a commander. , you can go back!"

"Really...just let me go back?"

Karl was confused for a moment, and then saw the shield wall opening.

"Get out of here!" Grund said fiercely.

At this time, Karl had nothing to say, and finally looked up into Rurik's eyes: "This will be a battle of fate. You will never get our surrender, and all you will get is my cold corpse."

After saying that, Karl didn't care to pick up the skin of the bear, and ran to the place where he had the axe. He held the ax and called to his bewildered followers: "Fools! Go back to the army and fight them!"

Please remember the first domain name of this book: . :