Rise of Rurik

The warriors of Jotalan gathered by the river. They slept next to the campfire and polished their axes and swords under the light of the fire.

Twenty villages downstream of the Göta River surrendered their men and elected and gave military power to three strong men.

In principle, "Bigfoot" Badal, "Broken Tooth" Cedric and "Archer" Eric have exactly the same power.

How to fight?

The three of them had 3,000 men in their hands, which was all the elite that the residents of the entire Göta River could muster. As for the other tens of millions of villagers armed, they were really a mixed crowd. At least these three brave men did not believe that those people could create any miracles.

Talking about personal experience, among the three, only "Bigfoot" Badal commanded an army of 500 men. This was his first time commanding an army of three thousand. If he wanted to keep the army in chaos, Badal had no experience, and the other two brave men had even less experience.

On the contrary, "Archer" Eric discussed with the other two people and came up with a little trick for attacking.

"Put all the men with bows under my command, and let me lead a group of people to lead the charge. When I find the enemy, I will kill them with arrows, and then you two will lead your brothers and charge forward. If the enemy is in the river, Jump into gangs and fight, and if the enemy is on the shore, land and kill them."

Eric was nicknamed "The Archer" and his personal archery skills were truly outstanding. But after all, this is an individual's bravery, and the guy in his hand is just average. He is a man who uses the short wooden bow to perfection, but he is only playing with the short wooden bow.

"You lead all the archers to open the situation first. Don't you...have the honor first?" Cedric was a little confused.

"Right now, instead of worrying about honor, let me open up the situation first so that you can take action." Eric explained.

"Just do it. All the hunters in my village will be given to you." Badal made a difficult decision. He looked into Eric's eyes: "You must mess up the battlefield and create opportunities for our brothers behind. "

Hearing this, Cedric also handed over all his Orions.

Iron is not uncommon in the Göta River Basin. A very large cone-shaped hill stands in the south of Lake Vänern, and below the hill is the Göta River.

There is a local village that is famous for its smelting of iron blocks. They dig high-quality superficial iron ore, burn it into sponge iron on the spot, then continuously knock it into iron ingots, and then process it into complex iron tools. They don't know the art of carburizing steel, but they know the importance of quenching.

They are not short of iron because of the wear and tear of normal life. Axes for logging, forks for fishing, and even arrow clusters are all iron tools, but they are not luxurious enough to make chain mails on a large scale.

The invaders suspected to be Swedes have already occupied the northern part of the river. If they discover the secret of iron smelting and occupy it, no matter what the people in the south think, they will indeed lose the iron ore they have developed.

The battle is not just for immediate survival, but also for the future.

Three hundred men with bows are under the command of "Archer" Eric. Among the three thousand elites, there are ten longships with three hundred men. They will serve as the vanguard of the fleet heading northward, giving priority to challenging the enemy.

At least until the sun rises, the huge force maintains the confidence of the Jotalan warriors. After all, there were three thousand of them, and they gathered together and flashed their golden hair to form a spectacular sight.

No, as the morning sun rises, the thick morning fog that rises from the river quickly dissipates.

Today's weather is not bad, but there are a lot of clouds in the sky. It has now entered the early summer when it is easy to rain. Rain may occur at any time. If the battle takes place in the rain, it will be quite disadvantageous for the Yotalans.

The three brave men banged their bucklers, and more warriors joined in to increase the momentum.

Many people only got a full night's sleep, ate some salted fish and dried meat early in the morning, picked up their weapons and went straight to the longboat parked in the reeds.

The men shouted trumpets and pushed the boat into the river. Regardless of their wet boots, they put down their long oars as soon as they climbed onto the long boat and began to swim near the shore where the current was extremely gentle and wait.

Three thousand warriors rushed to the battlefield, while their relatives also took up weapons and watched on the shore.

People made an agreement that when the elite went north, the others escaped into the forest. For those women and children, their husbands and fathers may be in trouble this time, and their farewell in the early morning may mean goodbye forever.

The village priests beheaded the cattle and sheep of their own villages, and slaughtered the cheeks and foreheads of the village warriors with the blood of the animals. The priest made a sacrifice to Odin! This blood has divine power.

All battles have received divine instructions, and some people's nervous hearts have been appeased, and they are even more looking forward to today's active attack.

But until now, no one knows the true situation they are facing the enemy. All knowledge comes from long-distance witnesses of fleeing fishermen, who pointed out that they saw a very large fleet, and some large ships seemed to be floating on the lake. boulders.

The Jotalans are not absolute frogs in the well.

Just two thousand years ago, a foreign fleet came in a mighty manner and burned Godfrehagen in the Kingdom of Denmark. That city is at the northernmost tip of the Jutland Peninsula, not very far from the mouth of the Göta River in a straight line. The Götaland people did not want to take the initiative to provoke the Danes. They applauded when they saw those former slave hunters encountering great disasters. Even the Danes being attacked by a huge fleet also made some knowledgeable Götaland people wary.

The inexplicable fleet that appeared in Lake Vänern was not the same as the inexplicable fleet that attacked Denmark. The witnesses on the lake must have seen the huge fleet, and they described it with embarrassment as "similar to the fleet that attacked the Danish city." Exactly the same." This is just more worry...

The sun shone on the faces of the warriors, and more than a hundred longboats of the Yotalan people were arranged in a triangular array in the wide river. They lowered their sails to catch the south wind, and paddled quickly northward.

They gave up the illusion of peace, and the Russian army not far away did the same.

It's just that unlike the Yotalans, the naval battle mode favored by the Kingdom of Rus can create a new era.

The flagship Gurdot sits in the middle, with the six sailing ships of the same class: Sperosvilia, Duke of Ostara, Avora, Gray Squirrel, Vipsalava and Rudy. The cruisers serve as the front line of the advance, and they form a wall!

There are four planet-class sail destroyers on each wing of the sail cruiser. Their tonnage is small and their force is weak. This weakness is naturally compared to that of the larger ships.

Except for the royal pirate Sputut, who controlled the Salmon Chief, who was armed to the teeth, and freely attacked in the Baltic Sea, the battleships of the Kingdom of Rus were already drifting in the Göta River.

Just like a cavalry launching a wall-mounted attack, the main force of the Ross fleet formed a wall, and the front line formed a wide attack arc. Once an enemy ship was encountered, the enemy ship would inevitably face the hard hull of the big ship first, especially if the bronze ram was deliberately installed. keel.

So, just as the sun was shining brightly, the two armies saw each other clearly.

Some soldiers climbed along their bodies to the observation platform of the main mast and tied their waists with ropes to prevent them from accidentally falling. In the era when there were no telescopes, professional sailors with natural farsightedness were hired. Now there is an observer sitting on the top of the mainmast of every big ship. They have a horn hanging on their waist. Rurik ordered to immediately spot the enemy's situation. Blow the trumpet.

Then all the observers of the big ship saw a terrifying scene due to the south. Isn't that large shiny white thing on the river the sail of the long ship?

The traditional longships of the Principality of Rus have all been replaced with more practical Latin triangle sails, so that they can catch the wind from all directions for their own use. At the cost of losing the fastest thrust that wide sails can enjoy when the wind is in the right direction. .

A huge fleet appeared in front of them. Although they were all familiar longships, the longships formed a dense formation in the river with a width of 200 meters. The Ross army had no idea that the Yotalans were so brave and actually chose to take the initiative. attack?

Yes, Rurik heard the horn blowing, and all the warriors were alert to it.

One person observed that he followed the hanging cable and fell heavily to the ground after only three or four seconds of rapid descent. The battle was imminent and he ignored the etiquette of dignity and quickly ran to the bow deck of the flagship ship to meet the king who had already put on armor.

"King! There are a large number of longships ahead, and the Jotalans are going to fight us desperately."

"I understand. You...don't be afraid of the mast." Rurik's mind was full of fighting, and he pushed the man directly: "You also join the battle on the deck, and quickly control the torsion slingshot."

Although Rurik would not fight with a sword or a crossbow in person due to the current situation, he himself issued a comprehensive battle order and ordered the flag soldiers to inform the entire army of the king's order.

The flag of King Ross on top of the flagship was still flying, and a black flag was quickly raised to the top.

This is the meaning of starting a war, and every ship sees it and it is the king's order. At the same time, semaphore soldiers holding two eye-catching yellow flags stood in the open space on the bow or stern deck of each ship to conduct precise communication.

What is most needed at this moment is the spirit of a reckless man, and Arik is unparalleled in his qualifications to perform meritorious services.

But after communicating with the flagship, the flagman informed him of the king's order: "Sir, the king ordered us to sink the enemy's ship as much as possible, but not to shoot arrows at the people who fell into the water. The king ordered us to drop the cables and capture the people who fell into the water."

"Is this more honorable? Bah!" Arik stamped his feet and rolled his eyes at the flag soldier: "Forget it. Go tell the king, I will obey the order."

Aric was on board the Sperosvelia. Since there was a small box under the wooden statue of the god on the bow of the ship, which contained a lock of hair of the late high priest Vilia, the entire ship was believed to always have divine power. A group of soldiers of the First Flag Team were very happy when the battle was fought on the ship.

Arik ordered his men again: "Show out all the torsion slingshots! Sink their ship! Remember, we have to move fast! Sink them! Sink them!"

Therefore, Arik was determined not to take prisoners. He did not want to do so unless necessary, so he planned to take the lead in the battle. Instead of taking prisoners, he wanted to become the general who sank the most enemy ships in the entire army.

But the wind direction is very unfavorable to the Ross army. Although they can move against the wind after lowering the jib, they can move against the wind. Sailing against the wind requires a zigzag movement. Unless the distance between ships is large enough, today's relatively cramped environment cannot allow ships to perform upwind skills.

Just like a duel between knights, the main ship of the Ross fleet has slightly left behind the armed cargo ships and traditional longships, and the pure warship of the kingdom rushed towards the battlefield fiercely.

On the other side of the battlefield, when the Jotalan longship fleet saw the so-called "huge fleet" clearly, no matter how they lamented, the battle was inevitable, like an out-of-control car rushing hopelessly towards a Mercedes-Benz tank. .

At first, Eric the Archer thought the ships were not big because of the distance.

"Brothers, put away your oars, put arrows on your bows, and get your axes ready! We are waiting for an opportunity to join forces."

It seems that today we will not be able to assault the enemy's camp, but instead engage in a river ship battle. Such a battle is as expected.

As the distance increased, "Archer" Eric was already trembling with fright at the wall of ships.

How to fight this?

Those ships were flying some familiar flags, and Eric suddenly realized. "Ah! Those ships that pass through the strait every year and provoke the Danes every year, are they?!"

The Viking sea battles were nothing more than collision, archery and gang fighting, which were also the three most primitive and brutal fighting modes. The longships on both sides were almost the same, so evenly matched they could only be so big. Now the height of the sides of those big ships was far higher than that of the longships.

The torsion slingshots on the side cannot output all the firepower directly forward, and only the two at the front can fire forward.

that's enough.

The Pioneer battleship seems to be equipped with two "small-caliber single-mounted guns", which actually fire two one-pound conical cast-iron bullets.

Grooves are reserved for the projectile when it is cast. Due to these slightly spiral grooves, the projectile also spins during flight, which greatly enhances accuracy.

The Rus' ships struck first, striking first at the Ghotalans' longships just outside the range of their archers.

The relief sculpture of the alien beast on the bow of the ship was smashed until sawdust flew everywhere, and a soldier standing in command was shot dead on the spot.

More projectiles still missed due to the longer distance and the bumps of the ship.

The distance between the two armies was rapidly approaching, and the shooting window left for the Ross army was almost gone.

"Attention! A collision is coming! Hold on tight!" Arik ordered loudly, and he also held on to the side of the ship.

The front end of the bronze ram was an obtuse angle. Although Spellosvilia's speed was determined by the natural flow speed of the Göta River, it was better because of her larger tonnage. The impact occurred suddenly, and the bronze ram directly broke the keel of the longship ahead. , the whole ship was directly mounted by the big ship, and even the archers on it were pinned to the bottom of the ship.

Under such a terrifying scene, the Jotalan ships did not dare to shoot arrows. Their bow hands were shaking, and the soldiers were trembling and waiting hopelessly for the collision to happen.

Because they were the vanguard of Jotalan, with a large number of friendly longships behind them. Their position determined that they had enemies in front of them and friendly forces in the rear. Their retreat was blocked and they could only be beaten helplessly.

Seeing that a large ship was about to rush over, "Archer" Eric made a move to resist the first ship, fearing that it was the Jotalans.

He fired an arrow at the oncoming battleship, and the collision ensued.

The horrific impact destroyed the ship, and Eric was thrown directly into the river, where he was pushed aside by the hard hull of the Ross battleship.

He lost his bow. When he fell into the water, he hurriedly took off his water-absorbing boots and jacket under the water. Finally, he touched a piece of wood and floated up. There were many Jotalan warriors like him who surfaced like they had been beaten with a sap. They all saw a horrifying scene. They were surrounded by large ships, and a large group of cross-dressing soldiers with bows glared down at them. Watch.

If the people on the big ship shot arrows at this time, Eric knew that he would almost certainly die.

He was so lucky to survive. The neighbor had just been hit to the point of numbness and at least saved his life, but he suddenly realized that his longboat had been crashed and many brothers from the same village died in the river.

Suddenly, a cable was thrown down.

I heard everyone on the big ship shouting loudly in Norse with a strange accent: "Yotalan people! Surrender and avoid death! Grab the rope and come up!"

Surrender to avoid death? Of course Eric didn't want to die, and he had no time to think about the current situation. He simply succumbed to his survival instinct and grabbed the rope thrown by the intruder. In this way, he became a prisoner of war of the Ross army.

"Archer" Eric was captured alive by the armed cargo ships that followed him like a drowned rat. In other words, one of the main purposes of these cargo ships was to capture prisoners. Eric's hands were tied and thrown aside. He didn't dare to speak. Then he saw more survivors being brought up. Those who refused were beaten with several sticks and then their hands and feet were tied. Those who did not resist were simply tied and thrown aside.

Obviously, these foreign invaders had powerful ships and were unwilling to kill people. This was abnormal. With Eric's limited knowledge, he estimated his future - becoming a slave.

This huge fleet is here to capture slaves! Just like the Danish pirates of the past! If they were allowed to succeed, wouldn't the entire Gothenburg area be doomed?

When I thought that the strongest army in history had been assembled in the lower reaches of the Göta River in the Pan-Gothenburg area, it was actually smashed into pieces by the invader's fleet in an instant. Not willing? have no choice? Eric lamented more about the situation without Internet.

Because the battle was still going on, the powerful Ross battleships rushed into the barefoot peasant army like heavy cavalry.

Continuous collisions severely destroyed the Yotalan longships, and hundreds of warriors were immediately swept into the river. Those long boats that passed through the gap in the big ship were not lucky either. The ship was shot fatally at close range by the big ship. A large number of holes were immediately punched out in the bottom of the ship, and the river water poured in like a spring. The soldiers raised their bucklers and axes and roared hopelessly. They were answered by crossbows fired by the Russian army.

No, Arik still rushed to the front. He deliberately prevented the Sperosvilla from being hit, just to avoid being slowed down.

He seized the opportunity and the entire ship became the vanguard officer among the vanguard officers.

"Brothers, this is your chance! Bring down the triangular maple! Charge against the wind and kill them!"

However, his speed was still slowed down, and the impact could no longer tear the longship apart, but it pushed the ship in front of him away.

Aric enjoyed being besieged, but he did not become a target because the bowman's longship had been wiped out in the initial impact.

For the other two brave men of the Jotalan army, they were shocked that their old friend Eric the "Archer" was easily defeated. Now a terrifying large ship came in front of everyone. The tragedy was that now only this large ship was shooting arrows crazily from a high position. The terrifying arrows (actually projectiles) can also smash through ships. Since he has lost his long-range weapons, the best he can do is throw harpoons to fight back in vain.

There was a chaotic fight on the river, and it looked like a large traffic jam.

The Jotalans had a larger number of ships. They had lost the motivation to continue going north and lost many ships. It was no longer possible to continue going north, and the ships at the scene of the whole battle were slowly drifting downstream at the speed of the Göta River.

"Shoot! Sink their ship! Don't let them escape!"

Aric shouted an order. Find Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan.com Now he wishes he could run on the water and chop with an ax!

But the morale of the Jotalan army had collapsed.

Badar and Cedric, who had never fought such a useless battle, saw that they would be sunk by these outsiders if they continued to waste their troops, so they had no choice but to make a tactical retreat.

In reality, it was a complete rout!

The two brave men did not really lose confidence. They had a second plan, and now they intended to take the remaining soldiers to retreat to the downstream villages and gather with the hidden villagers.

The escape has begun! However, the two of them were shocked that a damn big ship was actually pursuing them.

It's Aric. Let the poor bandits not chase after ghosts!

Rurik undoubtedly noticed this, stamped his feet in anger and felt helpless, and could only complain: "My cousin, the old habit has happened again!"

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