Rise of Rurik

What appeared in front of the fleet was a string of islands at the mouth of the Rhine River. They were the so-called Zeeland Islands, and today this area is uninhabited.

At least, the people with excellent eyesight who were riding on the mast designated could not see the shadow of the nearby village at all.

The fleet cannot get lost, all the islands of Zeeland are too low, and the eyes on high patrol the sea and the land.

The fleet used the most primitive and quite effective navigation method of human eye detection to search for the legendary large bay. As long as the fleet rushes in, Antwerp as the target will not be far away.

The weather was neither good nor bad, the sky was overcast and it seemed like it was going to rain.

All the ships were racing wildly on the rather undulating ocean surface.

The sails have all been opened, especially those of large warships, and even the bow scales have been pulled down.

The Ross ships in the coalition were distancing themselves from the Danish rowing boats at a speed visible to the naked eye. For this reason, Rurik had no intention of accommodating his allies.

A tall, blond man stood at the bow of the ship with squinted eyes. The ups and downs of the ship had no effect on him. His eyes were focused on the large bay where the phantom had appeared in front of him. As long as he continued to maintain the current high speed and did not need to plan an attack tomorrow, he could take action this evening.

The order was implemented with the simple actions of the flagman. Rurik's order to each ship was only one sentence: "The battle begins today."

This was the reason why the fleet took advantage of the cold north to sprint with all its strength. The majority of the soldiers were in high spirits. They stayed in the cabin and were busy checking their weapons and talking with their companions about how to make a fortune in the next battle.

Because the king also ordered that all soldiers can act freely against the city of Antwerp. "Freedom" means absolute freedom. They can kill everything and steal everything.

Although Ross had no grievances against the Count of Flanders himself, Ross did not come from nowhere. Count Baudouin was legally a vassal of East Francia. Since Rus had unilaterally declared a state of war with all Frankish countries, it was natural to attack Flanders.

Unable to kill everyone in the new expedition, the soldiers would inevitably feel too aggrieved. After all, in the battle with the Frankish heavy cavalry on the banks of the Elbe River, the coalition forces suffered more than a thousand casualties. Ross also lost a large number of veterans, and even many young fighters who entered the war for the first time this year.

If everything is the fault of the Franks, then all the Frankish vassals must die to apologize.

The attack on Antwerp became entirely an act of revenge.

A large group of ferocious sea wolves are about to land, like the arrival of death, but the residents of Antwerp know nothing about it.

Of course, the first thing to see something strange was the small fishing village in the bay.

The wind and waves were a bit strong, and small fishing boats could not bear the waves. Fishermen who should be fishing are busy working at home. The men added haystacks and wooden stakes to strengthen the sheepfold, and packed as much of the forage that had been cut in advance as possible for winter use. Women and children were busy repairing fishing nets and doing crafts.

Their life should have been an idyllic one. Although their life was quite poor, it was still passable.

Now, what looks like a large number of small islands drift in the bay.

Taking a closer look, it turned out to be a boat? !

The fishermen on the shore had never seen a Ross ship, with its double straight masts and lying bow mast. They had never seen a giant ship of this style.

But they are not stupid.

"A Norman?!"

"Must be the Normans."

"Oh God! These demons from hell are here again!"

People were not only busy lamenting the disaster that comes with bad weather, but some people suggested: "Hurry up and ride to the city to inform the Baron. Let's leave the coast quickly!"

The village's fief knight received the alert from the villagers, and the knight himself easily saw the mighty fleet.

Because many years ago, pirates from the port of Durist robbed Antwerp. The criminal was Horik. At that time, he was still a rogue who occupied the port. He had gathered thousands of exiles under his command. He was really powerful, but he had no status.

The plundering of Antwerp was more out of political considerations. This attack directly forced the real earl to give in and cede territory and spend money to buy peace.

The plunder of Antwerp indeed made Horik a fortune. Seeing how weak the count was, he simply claimed to be the real Earl of Flanders.

This kind of self-entertainment was not recognized by anyone, which was also the reason why he hoped to win the throne of Denmark and wipe away the shame of being expelled.

Many years have passed, and now Horik has become the "sacrifice pig" locked in a cage by King Rus, waiting for the right time to sacrifice to the gods.

The two men made exactly the same choice - to plunder Antwerp.

After all, no one has trouble with wealth.

Entering the southern region, this is the essence of the huge Flanders.

In today's era, the urban class only exists in theory. Most of the population exists in villages. The core city always originates from the residence of the great nobles. There are a large number of auxiliary craftsmen, private soldiers and their families. These people constitute the main population of the city. . And coupled with some mobile merchants, an early medieval Western European city is full of this model.

After all, Antwerp had experienced brutal plundering, and when the pirates evacuated, people rebuilt the city on the wreckage. To avoid new raids, the baron did not hesitate to build a wall.

The nearest fishing village sent a courier to rush straight to the city.

The fief knight immediately summoned the strong men in the village and told them what to do next: "The man I chose, follow me to Antwerp! Bring weapons and weapons and we must move quickly. Others, with women and children, drive away all Sheep, goats and cattle were evacuated southward."

Disasters come as quickly as a summer rainstorm. People have no time to scream and can only follow the orders of the knight. They all knew that this was the only way to avoid being killed.

There are more than 200 people in this village, with few mature men and many children. The mortality rate of young children is always high, and every family is trying to ensure that the family has as much labor force as possible through a large number of births.

Therefore, a boy can participate in labor when he is five years old, and when he is ten years old, he should be ready to fight.

The knight gathered a mere twenty warriors, and the remaining men and even boys took weapons (essentially farm tools), escorted the whole village, young and old, and livestock, and began to move towards the south, towards Ghent.

The fief knight who was the first to warn mobilized all the horses in the village. He had a strong sense of responsibility and ordered his soldiers to move to Antwerp as quickly as possible, either on horseback or in a carriage.

At the same time, the news was also notified to the villages passing by. However, how could they be faster than the Ross fleet, which was riding the waves and taking shortcuts?

There are as many as twenty villages in the flat area west of Antwerp city alone, and six thousand people live in this huge area.

The villages living close to the bay all saw the mighty and strange army. They were instinctively afraid and concluded that it was the Norman army.

They had no time to think about whether their judgment was accurate. No one could forget the disaster many years ago. When someone speculated that "that was the Norman Devil", it must be the pirate army.

The fief knights could not escape. They had to be loyal to their lord, the Baron of Antwerp. If they refused to be loyal in times of crisis, they would also be punished by the count in the future. Even if it is not a capital crime, it is still demoted to a common people.

Because the Baron of Antwerp is the earl's brother-in-law.

In Western Europe today, there is no such thing as "brother-in-law", but the general term "brother". Naturally, the wife's brother is also her brother. Based on this relationship, after Count Baudoin inherited his dead father's title, he arranged for his brother-in-law to be a baron and let him manage the important town of Antwerp.

Today's weather is not very good, and the city's fishing work has been put on hold today.

The products produced in nearby villages gathered in the city, and the baron's family was busy rough processing the wool. The boiled and degreased wool was dried and stuffed into linen bags and placed in the baron's warehouse. Most of the wool was a tribute to his brother-in-law, and a small amount was his own wealth.

The traditional trade routes in Flanders either took the land route directly to Aachen, the capital of the kingdom, to sell wool, or transported it to the south by shipping across the Scheldt River.

Although the weather is not good today, there is no need to suspend the wool processing work.

The Baron felt that today was an ordinary day. At most, it might rain in a few days, and the weather would be colder after the rain.

He issued an order calling on his cronies to keep warm. And because it is already October, Halloween on November 1st is not far away.

Halloween in the ninth century had nothing to do with entertainment. It was a very serious holiday. All people living on earth would bless their ancestors who ascended to heaven, and also pray for heaven to bless all mortals.

It would be a major Mass, when the Baron himself would go to the cathedral in Ghent to take part in the festival. His daily life is dull and boring, and he has a lot of time to arrange festival matters.

He ordered his tailor to make new clothes, so that he would have a proud felt robe for Halloween and gorgeous clothes for Christmas.

But then the Normans came.

Rurik brought a large portion of Ragnar's army, and the battleship had arrived at the dock in Antwerp.

The rowing boats towed by the big ship immediately released the fixed cables, and the sharpened swordsmen on the big ship moved lightly and followed the thrown rope net to reach the long ship.

The larger longships, as well as all the smaller lifeboats, were released by the Ross ship for all the landing craft.

The three hundred most elite warriors wore leather helmets that covered half of their faces, and most of them were decorated with bear heads. They carried swords and crossbows to launch a strong attack.

Such an offensive action was too obvious, and the Russian army was completely accompanied by the rapid ringing of bells in the monastery in the city.

Those who were repairing fishing nets on the shore dropped their work and rushed to the city.

The people standing on the city wall were tearing their throats and calling for their own people to run away.

The shocked Baron had no time to think. He hurriedly put on his armor and arrived at the wooden wall of the main entrance. He was dumbfounded in front of the mighty and strange army.

"They? Are they really Normans? They are uniformly dressed and have the heroic appearance of Frankish elites?"

A guard trembled and persuaded: "My lord, give up your illusions. Their boats have already started to move, and they are enemies."

"Maybe, you can talk to them?"

The baron was not completely sure that this was the Norman army, and even all the city defenders felt strange.

Those who robbed Antwerp were all shirtless blond ruthless men with hideous patterns on their skin, just like the so-called "Satan's apostles crawling out of hell" described in the scriptures.

However, Rurik's vanguard was ruthless men led by veteran Grund.

The Russian army established a landing beachhead without any bloodshed, but saw that the enemy had closed the door and the attack could not stop.

Grund looked up and looked at the low wooden wall with disdain.

"If you build a stone wall, I can still admire you for knowing how to defend. A thin wooden wall will be easily chopped down by us."

He ordered urgently: "Crossbowmen! Kill those birds!"

He was talking about the tense garrison soldiers standing on the wooden wall.

The baron sent all the archers to the high place, and he boldly leaned out half of his body and shouted in Frankish at the top of his lungs: "Are you the army of some great noble? We don't want to fight you."

However, the wind was a little louder, and Grund couldn't hear clearly what the person was shouting. He only felt that the person was shouting a challenge.

More than a hundred soldiers carried two types of crossbows, with thirty steel arms and seventy wooden arms. Seeing that the enemy's actions were a bit stupid, the Russian army completed the bowing on the spot.

They even had time to form an array, which seemed to the defenders to be a marvelous spectacle.

After all, it was difficult for the baron to arrange his retinue soldiers neatly, but it was a good show to see the strange army formations from foreign countries.

However, the soldiers in formation made strange movements, as if they were holding some kind of utensil.

Immediately afterwards, the Baron no longer had to think about anything.

Because in the original history, it was not until the First Crusade that the Western European armies brought the hand crossbows used by the Eastern Roman Army back to the West after passing through the Eastern Roman territory. It was already the twelfth century when they were widely used.

Ross's military equipment was therefore quite advanced. The army in Flanders saw the crossbow for the first time, and the first encounter was very costly.

The baron was hit twice by a steel-armed crossbow, and a short and thick arrow coincidentally penetrated his eye socket.

This was a fatal wound, and the baron died in such an inexplicable way. He died instantly, but his death was painless.

More than a dozen soldiers were killed along with the baron, and some others were injured and suffered internal injuries after falling.

The vanguard troops are all Ross's standing troops. They are ordered to spend almost all their time on military training on weekdays, and now they really show strong combat effectiveness.

"The crossbowmen keep shooting! Everyone else, bring your axes to chop the wood!"

The so-called "logging" means destroying wooden walls.

The baron died suddenly and suddenly, leaving the defenders leaderless. With sudden and precise arrow strikes, the Ross army relied on their numerical advantage to suppress the defenders' archers from showing their heads.

A javelin hit the city with a low buzzing sound. This was a test shot ordered by Rurik.

Worried about insufficient range, the Russian army did not launch ship-based fire support first. He never expected that the javelin in this experiment would actually fall into the city.

"It's the wind! The wind god is holding us!"

The Russian army was in the north of the city, and the side of the ship faced the city on the south bank. Naturally, the javelins fired could take advantage of the north wind.

As a result, a large number of arrows fell from the sky. They were given an impossible range by the north wind and hit the houses full of haystacks in the city.

Killing the enemy is secondary, the main thing is to create chaos to facilitate the siege.

The vanguard troops were hacking down the gates and city walls, while the follow-up troops were still rowing boats to land one after another.

Henry Nassau's eyes were widened by all these shocks. Those fifteen feudal knights and the Baron of Groningen, their understanding of war was rewritten on this evening with bad weather.

As the door was smashed open, a wall collapsed inwards.

At the same time, the defense of Antwerp City had already collapsed due to the sudden death of the Baron. The javelin falling from the sky killed and injured some people, which directly triggered the beginning of the entire city's escape.

It's not that they are spineless, it's because Antwerp is a city rebuilt on ruins. People could not forget the looting and killings of the Normans, and they had no choice but to run away knowing that they were unable to resist.

They opened the south and west gates of the city, and fled with their family and family without time to take Xinruan.

Although the retinue soldier died and his master died, the baron's son was fine. In theory, from this moment on, that child became the new generation of baron.

The retinues quickly evacuated with the brand-new Baron of Antwerp, riding in carriages and horses, and fled towards Ghent. The main members of the Baron family successfully escaped, while the abandoned servants had no choice but to escape on foot.

Grund led the Ross army into the city resolutely. A group of white-robed and blue-striped warriors with bear heads on their heads faced a large number of panicked people who were still fleeing and launched an attack without mercy.

In the eyes of the locals, a large group of wild bears transformed into humans.

Grund was smiling, but the helmet that covered half of his face could not cover his open mouth.

He raised the steel sword to the front: "Brothers! Kill everything! Steal everything! Follow me and charge!"

Thus, in October 840 AD, the second Viking raid on Antwerp began brutally in this increasingly dark evening.

But unlike the last time, a considerable number of Antwerp residents had already fled. In order to survive, they left behind their belongings and mostly retreated upstream along the river. No doubt they would rush to Ghent by then.

Because the main force of the count was stationed there, only Ghent was safe.