Rise of Rurik

Rurik was standing in the first row of the array. His clothes were not outstanding. In other words, the clothes of the main soldiers of the army were too outstanding and could no longer highlight his specialness.

But all the warriors know that their king is standing in the front row, and the king is standing with them, and everyone is confident.

Likewise, they have almost no way out.

Everyone knows that even if there are a large number of long boats parked by the river, it will take some time to jump on the boat and escape in a short time, even if it is in an orderly manner.

There was almost no possibility of escaping the battlefield. Behind them was the Elbe River, and everyone fought with their last legs.

The warrior who had experienced many battles faced the cavalry forming a wall on the opposite side, and it would be false if he didn't feel scared. They went through many tough battles and relied on willpower to suppress their inner fears. They silently recited prayers such as "Odin bless me" in their hearts, hoping for a quick victory.

The Rus' army and the allied Saxon army chose a passive strategy. Rurik waited for the enemy to attack with force. If that didn't work, he would create conditions to "invite" them to attack.

As long as they are provoked, will they immediately attack?

Killing a few Frankish prisoners in front of the battle line should have angered them.

Rurik was reluctant to commit such a despicable act, as there were many ways to anger them.

Now, all the spears and halberds are placed at their feet. At first glance, the entire army is made up of sword and shield bearers. They are a large group of soldiers standing upright. They are pillars of flesh that can be directly overwhelmed by the cavalry group.

Rurik began to shout, which immediately caused all the warriors to let out a Viking war cry.

This roar is very rhythmic, with nearly ten thousand mouths shouting at the same time, which is a powerful deterrent. If used as a means of provocation, it is not enough.

Nearly a hundred warriors holding crossbows deliberately walked out of the array under Rurik's instruction. Their fully charged weapons were placed on the grass, leaving the array and forming a human wall, as if they were engaging in a performance art.

Count Robert, who was busy arranging his formation and preparing to charge forward, did not understand that he still needed some time to organize his lances.

"What are the Normans doing? They have sent out some people to challenge us as vanguards?" He said to himself and continued to stare.

Suddenly, the nearly one hundred Russian soldiers suddenly turned around, took off their standard trousers and twisted their waists.

A piece of white stuff suddenly appeared in front of the Frank cavalry. Robert, who was originally confused, turned into a rage in an instant.

He is a great nobleman and a decent man! This humiliation of exposing one's private parts is really unreasonable.

"A bunch of idiots." As he spoke, he raised his spear high and shouted at his subordinates: "In front of us are a bunch of despicable maggots. They dare to humiliate us and let us stab them to death! Trumpeter! Blow the trumpet. !”

The Frank cavalry moved in response to the sound of the trumpet, and the upright spears began to gradually lower themselves.

After they made such a move, it was obvious what would happen next.

Rurik's serious expression quickly turned into urgency. He shouted at the top of his voice to the soldiers in front who were responsible for humiliating the enemy: "Come back quickly, pick up your weapons and lie down!"

The Frankish army was about to charge, and the arrow was ready to be fired.

Robert looked left and right again. His left arm was extremely painful to move due to the injury, but this battle was about honor and the security of the country. He tied the reins around his shoulders and clamped them under his arms. His intact right hand held the lance, and his iron sword was deliberately placed across the saddle so that he could quickly draw the sword and chop after the lance broke.

Like other cavalrymen, his left and right legs in stirrups were covered with small kite shields. The whole body was covered with chain mail, and a layer of cowhide and riveted iron armor was put on the torso.

Most of the elite soldiers have achieved such outrageous assembly, and it is precisely because they are ready for a decisive battle that they deliberately take out this "Decisive Battle Armor" and put it on their bodies.

These elite cavalry are all wearing the Western European heavy armor of this era. The chests of the war horses are also well protected, and even the horse heads are protected by cowhide riveted iron armor.

The elite of the Frankish army were known as the "Iron Men", which was the military foundation for their expansion into a large empire.

Facing a group of "Iron Men", the Ross Army was not afraid. After all, the brothers were all "Iron Men".

Now, Robert felt everything was ready.

"attack!"

As a result, the wall of cavalry began to advance slowly and gradually accelerated.

The ground was shaking, and an attack could be seen on the wall. Liudov's Saxon army on the right wing was already in danger. In fact, if it weren't for a last-ditch fight, many people would have run away. Fortunately, Liu Doufu had warned him beforehand that anyone who dared to escape from battle would be hanged afterwards.

Everyone knew that Liudov really dared to do this. Just a few days ago, ninety defeatists had been publicly executed.

The Russian army followed the previous arrangement. The upright warriors bent down one after another, first stepped on the end of the spear with their right foot, and held the spear shaft with their hands interlaced.

Thousands of people bowed almost at the same time, which puzzled Robert, who was already charging faster and faster, and had no time to think about why.

Because all the Frank cavalry have entered the effective range of the arrows.

"shooting!"

Rurik gave an order, and the only chance to shoot was now. Fifteen hundred crossbowmen, as well as the torsion slingshots sandwiched among them, fired nearly one thousand six hundred arrows and javelins in an instant.

The javelin carries strong potential energy, regardless of the armor of the man and the horse, even the double-layered armor, is extremely powerless in front of the surface-hardened low-carbon needle-like javelin.

The javelin penetrated the cavalry with both men and horses, instantly wiping out one combatant.

Those light arrows crackled against the cavalrymen, reflecting their encounter on the banks of the Weser River. Many arrows did pierce the bodies, and the arrow clusters penetrated the rings and penetrated into the flesh, but it was not a fatal wound at all. Even because of their absolute excitement, the soldiers felt no pain, and the arrow feathers on their bodies were very obvious and unlucky burdens. They still continued to charge with their lances in hand.

Only the heavy arrows fired by the steel-arm crossbows caused damage, but they were still not as effective as the javelins fired by the torque slingshot.

Above the heads of Ross's military formation, endless whooshing sounds passed by his ears. Those were the various long-range weapons on the battleships. More arrows and javelins hit the Frankish cavalry in depth, causing additional casualties. But the ship-borne armament also only has one chance. When the two armies meet, the rest will be pure bloody hand-to-hand combat.

Rurik did not expect that a single salvo could collapse the elite of the legendary Frankish army. The job of the arrows was to delay the effectiveness of the enemy's assault. It would be great if they could disrupt their rhythm.

"Crossbowmen! Withdraw! Spears! Up!"

Rurik ordered this, and all the archers, no matter whether they heard the verbal order or not, had already shot the only arrow, picked up the weapons in their hands, and rushed to the military formation rolling and crawling.

Even Rurik's evacuation was undignified.

Like a groundhog, Rurik almost crawled into the infantry array. When he stood up again, his infantry had already revealed their hidden spears and halberds.

Look at these warriors!

The warriors in the first three rows all had the ends of their spears pressed against their right feet, and their entire right legs were stretched straight back. The person's left leg is half-bent, the entire torso reaches forward and sinks, the hands are interlaced to hold the spear shaft, and the entire spear extends forward at an angle of about 30°.

The soldiers at the back, who were already far away from the front line, raised their spear butts almost to the same height as their faces, preparing to engage in battle and then thrust forward.

This is already the spear formation tactic of the late Middle Ages. Coupled with the use of matchlocks and steel-armed crossbows, the so-called Spanish Grand Phalanx moves sideways in this way.

It is now the year 840, and there is not much intrigue in the European War.

Even when he saw the Normans suddenly forming a dense formation of spears, this was the first time Robert had seen this tactic. He instinctively felt it was dangerous, but unfortunately the entire army could not stop.

The cavalry warrior almost lay on the horse's back, holding on to the lance waiting for the final collision.

The soldiers of the Russian army gritted their teeth, their heads went blank, and their bones were almost broken, waiting for the final collision.

Now, the collision happens!

Gujuan

Look!

The lances of the Frank cavalry began to poke at the Russian soldiers, and the spearheads penetrated the men.

Likewise, more spearheads penetrated deeply into the flesh and blood of the horses, and the halberds hooked the cavalry off their horses.

A famous cavalryman was poked with bloody holes by the spear wall, and a large number of spear shafts were completely shattered by just one impact. The impact of the collision was so fierce that even a sharpened wooden spear could pierce the gaps in the armor, or force the war horse to suddenly "reinforce".

Because of the horse's victory instinct, it will instinctively avoid sharp objects when it sees them, because it means injury and death. Unlike human beings, who will face the charge for some great cause even though they know that they will die if they continue to do it.

The cavalry did not even break through the weakest Saxon right defense line, even though the latter suffered greater losses.

The wall riding was embedded in the spear array to varying degrees, and the battle line became extremely twisted, but the erosion of the wall riding had been completely contained.

Countless war horses were stabbed to death. If the war horses suddenly kicked up in front of the formation and "hurriedly let go", they would still be stabbed to pieces in the soft abdomen by the spears.

For a moment, blood and flesh were flying everywhere in the battle. The war horses were torn into pieces by countless spears and halberds, and the sticky internal organs of the horses flowed everywhere...

The Ross army no longer cared about their own casualties. It was clear that some of their companions covered their bleeding wounds and howled, but no one tried to pull them out of the battlefield.

The most dangerous moment had passed, and the Frankish cavalry's wall-mounted offensive was disintegrated.

Rurik saw that the enemy's offensive was delayed, and the soldiers continued to stab with their intact spears.

He pulled out his steel sword: "Follow me and charge! We can't let them escape!"

Just after giving the order, he gave an urgent order to the flag officer behind him.

Just across the Elbe River, more armed soldiers watched the progress of the battle.

Fisk's cavalry waited for orders. When he saw that the bloody battle had broken out, the fire in his heart could hardly be controlled.

"Hold still! Hold still! Wait for orders!"

He constantly reassured his men.

Until I saw the wildly waving flag.

"It's time! Let's go!"

As a result, more than 200 Ross cavalry protruded out of the city of Hamburg and ran wildly on the pontoon bridge. They were all light cavalry, holding recurve bows, hoping to quickly enter the battlefield to block the enemy's possible escape route.

The waving flag was also a signal to the thousand Danish infantrymen floating on the river who were watching eagerly.

Ragnar and his men saw what was the most frenzied battle, and were glad that they were not the ones to face the terrible impact.

Now it's finally his turn to appear.

Ragnar personally acted as the oarsman and ordered the entire army to charge hard.

One longship after another docked, and the Danish warriors even jumped out bare-backed, ignoring the cold river water and ashore, holding a round shield in one hand and a variety of weapons in the other.

They are the most classic Viking warriors, now thrown into battle, participating in slashing "horsemen in the blood".

But none of this mattered to Robert.

Count Robert was not dead, but his legs were pinned down by the horse. His legs were not broken, but they were pressed tightly and he could not escape. After a sudden collision, the horse was killed and he himself fainted.

This is a big gamble.

Riding on the wall to overwhelm the enemy's formation and drive them into the sea is victory. Being held back by them, the cavalry lost all momentum, which was considered a small loss.

If not only the momentum is lost, but the cavalry is also surrounded and unable to escape, it will be a huge defeat.

After all, when a heavy cavalry is besieged, it is not only difficult for them to fight with two fists, but the besiegers will directly chop off the horse's hooves. As long as one hoof is injured, the cavalry will really be unable to escape.

The sluggish horses had their hooves chopped off, or were stabbed directly in the abdomen by steel swords.

The Russian army was quite experienced in dealing with cavalry. They killed the horses and directly caused the cavalry in heavy armor to fall. It was difficult to stand up while wearing heavy armor, and such a fall often meant that one leg was pinned down by a war horse.

The Russian soldiers swarmed forward and slashed the cavalry with swords and battle axes. It didn't matter if they were wearing armor. They smashed their faces and killed the cavalry immediately.

The life or death of the supreme commander is uncertain, or because all senior commanders lead the way out of noble honor, they are now dead or injured, and the command center is gone.

When some Frank cavalry instinctively wanted to escape from the battlefield, Ross's light cavalry magic troops came from the sky and used close-up riding and shooting to deal with these heavy cavalry who could only fight with their swords drawn.

Fisk asked the brothers to shoot accurately at the exposed parts of the enemy's skin, especially the face and neck. The moment to test their daily training is now.

The precise arrows killed a few Frank cavalrymen, while more arrows passed through the iron rings and embedded themselves in the flesh. Although they were small in number, they fired light arrows at the enemy in a very rapid shooting mode. There were only about 200 horsemen, and their shooting effectiveness in a short period of time was no less than that of a thousand infantry archers.

The escape route was blocked by the Ross army. They didn't even have time to be shocked that the enemy still had cavalry before they were blocked by more sword and shield men.

On one side was a bloody battlefield, with the Normans slashing and killing everywhere. On the other side were the Normans blocking the retreat, and they began to attack.

Ragnar didn't waste any words, he knocked the shield a few times with his steel sword, even if he issued a general attack order to everyone.

A thousand Danish soldiers swarmed forward, not only blocking the enemy's retreat, but also entangled with them. Simply relying on the large number of people, they did not let any Frank cavalry slip through the net.

The river beach became a battlefield of flesh and blood. The blood of humans and animals merged into streams, and the bright red water poured into the Elbe River.

This river has been drinking blood again since the defeat in the decisive battle of the Saxon Restoration War in 797 AD.

The difference is that in the war that year, Charlemagne retaliated by killing 4,500 Saxon captured soldiers on the riverside, causing their blood to bleed out with "Roman punishment", and then threw their bodies into the Elbe River. For this reason, the river became red.

This time, most of the blood flowing into the river was the blood of the Frank army.

In fact, the battle that took place on the Elbe River outside Hamburg in the autumn of 840 was actually the most brutal battle that Saxony had experienced so far in the Third War of Restoration.

In today's European wars, a decisive battle often determines the prosperity of a country.

Liudov knew very well what the current situation meant. His coalition forces with Ross and Denmark miraculously blocked the Frankish elite attack. Now, the coalition forces are completely annihilating them.

This means that even if Ludwig organizes a large army to go north, he will either need time to prepare, or he will have to take the main force of the southern front north. Even so, Ludwig could no longer bring out his elite, so he could only fight the Saxon army with ordinary soldiers. The same local Saxon nobles who obeyed whoever won, Liudov believed that he would win their hearts because of this battle. Heartfelt recognition. Find bookstore www.zhaoshuyuａan.comｍ

In the battle on the south bank of the Elbe River, the unbalanced balance of power between the two sides will be quickly evened out due to this battle.

Don't leave a way for the enemy to survive, control the battlefield, and kill them all. Such ruthlessness was no longer an ordinary Norman. Once he thought that the commander was Rurik, King of Rus, Liudov didn't think it was too outrageous.

This brat Rurik really won't be merciful when fighting just because of who you are. In the Aleb Fortress, this brat used this cruel method to deal with the Saxon army. Now the two sides are united and using the same means to deal with the Franks.

For a moment, Liudof felt that he had betrayed the Lord by cooperating with the Normans with heretical beliefs and killing crazily in the blood and mud. Those people covered in red were like apostles of Satan.

"Faith? Repent in the future! Robert, you didn't give me a chance to negotiate, right?! It's not my responsibility that the battle turned like this, it's all your responsibility." Liudof cursed secretly.

He saw the Russians cleaning the battlefield, and ordered his men to join them, trying to grab all kinds of urgently needed iron tools.

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