Rise of Rurik

The Normans disappeared without a trace overnight. They were like devils, dealing with everyone with cruel methods, and then suddenly disappeared without leaving any trace.

An encounter turned into a battle of wills. Of course, it can also be said that this was King Ludwig's anger, which cost him hundreds of casualties.

He only had more than 24,000 men at hand, which seemed to be a huge force, of which only about 6,000 were good at fighting. Or some of the farmers who were recruited were brave enough to fight. At most, the army he brought to the north this time had 10,000 brave people.

As for the remaining soldiers, especially the Sorbians, their fighting will is simply negative. The value of this group of people's existence is probably to replace the pack horses that were hacked to death by the Norman cavalry.

The situation stabilized, and Ludwig finally had time to count his own casualties.

The heavy casualties of the troops were visible to the naked eye. The lightly wounded soldiers kept wailing in the forest camp. Many of the wounded were so exhausted that the strength of their shouts gradually faded away.

On just the first night, a group of seriously injured people died quietly.

Some lucky people received prayers from priests before they died, which was regarded as the last psychological comfort for the dying life.

The Franks didn't know how many Norman troops they had killed in the battle, and the soldiers even became more and more confused. No one like Reca could see the enemy's face clearly, and they didn't know who they were fighting.

After a confused battle, the Frank army's losses exceeded 600 people!

Among them, the total number of dead in the first morning after the war was more than 300. Many corpses had horrific fatal injuries, and many died of pure blood loss.

There is no clear military medical system in the army. Soldiers have to take care of each other's injured comrades. The most they can do is to tie the injured arm with a cloth strip and hope for a miracle to happen.

Almost all of the casualties came from regular troops, and Ludwig's characteristic unit, the spear-throwing troops, undoubtedly suffered heavy casualties.

Those strong men who are usually supported by good food are indeed different from ordinary people. Some strong men can use spear throwers to launch javelins to a distance of 200 meters. In this duel with the Normans, they are the absolute main force, and they are dedicated The cost is also staggering.

Most of the casualties came from the spear throwing team, and Ludwig was heartbroken at the loss of a group of strong men.

Now, the whole army looked sad and exhausted, and the cold wind intensified the desolation.

The generals of each flag team reported their losses to the king, and the information finally compiled was unbelievable.

"I lost one tenth of my elite troops in one battle?!"

All the infantry flag captains are here, and anyone with a discerning eye knows that the enemy retreated smoothly, but not only did our side not win. They bowed their heads and endured the impotent fury of their king.

It wasn't until the king vented for a while that a general explained such a thing: "We saw a lot of iron pieces everywhere on the battlefield, even pulled out from the bodies of the dead. They looked strange and were exactly the same as each other. The enemy used strange tools. When these things are launched, it is difficult to block them with shields and armors. If they are hit hard, even if they can be blocked, the human bones will be broken."

Some people say this, and some people use arrows to say so.

The speaker was the flag captain who was previously responsible for guarding the Archbishop of Cologne. He pointed out vigilantly: "In our previous encounters, we encountered mysterious and strange horse archers. They fired needle-like arrows. The arrow clusters were so hard that they could pierce our armor. Oak shield. Moreover, it looks exactly the same as some arrows we found by the river."

This statement immediately reminded Ludwig: "Oh? So the cavalry that attacked us are the same enemy as the ships we encountered yesterday? Those ships were carrying flags, and they were undoubtedly Russians. What about the cavalry? Same thing. Same?"

Such questions were made knowingly. The captains of each banner were not territorial nobles. They and their subordinates were all standing armies supported by Ludwig through taxes.

After all, the Eastern Kingdom, especially Bavaria, has a realistic need to expand westward. If they don't take action, the Principality of Moravia established by the Czechs in the west will expand westward. The Eastern Kingdom has always been in constant border friction with many Slavic peoples. It is extremely important to retain three standing armies of 10,000 people. The result is also extremely expensive. The standing army should be stationed in more places and supported by serving farmers. The defensive forces in some areas were immobile, so Ludwig did not have many mobile forces.

The Mainz area, one of Frank's "Longxing Lands", is now Ludwig's territory. There is currently a heavy army stationed and cannot move. The large area covered by this region was the front line of the civil war between the Eastern Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom.

Frank's expansion to the north and east all occurred in the past fifty years. Now Ludwig has obtained the territories gained by these expansions, and has inherited these complicated regional contradictions.

A powerful heavily armored legion maintains his absolute authority, and this legion must also fight against various rebellions and resist external humiliation.

Already, three thousand heavy cavalry had been broken, and now another six hundred heavy infantry had been broken.

After paying such a heavy price, the arrogance of the Normans and Saxon mutineers became even more rampant.

A huge question lies ahead, whether the army will continue to advance.

The elite troops under his command have and support his own command. The remaining small nobles accompanying him are small and have no say. The Archbishop of Cologne has been threatened before and did not express any opinions.

As for the Sorbians, when they heard that the capable Frankish heavy infantry suffered a sudden loss, they were secretly happy at first, but then they couldn't be happy anymore.

Regarding continuing to move north, the soldiers all felt that the risks were huge and that normal war must be cursed.

The strange thing is that everyone remained silent, and they did not express any opinions. When Ludwig briefly heard the news, everyone who was asked answered that "there should be revenge."

What is "should be revenged"? You can take revenge immediately, or you can raise troops to kill next year. No matter how you explain it, it is not wrong.

Ludwig believed that the soldiers were demanding "immediate revenge." He had some hesitation in his heart. Seeing the warrior begging for a fight, he decided to take another gamble.

Those who were injured were unable to fight anymore, so he decided to transport the wounded to Bremen and also place some conscripted peasant soldiers to control the city. After all, immediately arranging for the evacuation of the wounded will only create an illusion for the entire army that damages morale - the army is about to withdraw.

Work to rebuild Bremen must begin immediately, starting with bridge repairs.

The Sorbians, who literally meant cows and horses, immediately started felling wood with axes and then worked together to lay the wooden strips on the stone piers.

Thousands of people working together are indeed very efficient. As many as fifty people dragged and pushed the newly cut straight pine wood to the first bridge pier, and slowly completed the entire laying like assembling building blocks.

During this process, they also noticed traces of damage to the bridge piers. If Ludwig had seen these obvious traces with his own eyes, he might have made some wise judgments, but the Sorbians completely concealed this discovery.

Arik's efforts to destroy the bridge piers were nothing more than "scraping" against a large number of stones.

The timber was still laid, and although the resulting bridge was somewhat awkward on a macro scale, it was ignored by everyone.

From logging to laying the bridge, thousands of people felled the wood and tied the wood with specially prepared cables. They started in the morning and completed the laying in the afternoon.

Ludwig couldn't wait for this.

He was riding a war horse and dressed in fine attire, and people saw that their king was still mighty and confident.

He drew his sword and pointed it straight to the north: "Soldier! Follow me! Cross the bridge!"

As a result, each flag team formed a queue and crossed the bridge in a relatively orderly manner, followed by the recruited peasant soldiers, lower-level noble troops, and Sorbians pulling the baggage.

Even the slightly injured were sent to the other side of the river.

Facing the city of Bremen, which is still in ruins, people no longer feel sad.

The Normans burned and killed many years ago. Since then, the abandoned city has begun to be eroded by green grass and small trees. Some pine saplings sprouted from the ruins, and dead grass could be seen everywhere.

A cross flag was planted here, and Ludwig deliberately held the flagpole like a great hero.

He announced to everyone that he had recaptured Bremen, and then encouraged the soldiers to shout and cheer. The scene was really lively.

In any case, this lost area will be returned to the Eastern Kingdom, and it will immediately serve as a logistics base for the Frank army, and a considerable amount of supplies will be placed here first.

The Frankish army would firmly hold the newly built bridge and immediately fortify the recovered city.

After all, winter has arrived!

Even if Ludwig continues to be aggressive, the low temperature in winter is no joke.

The battle was still going on. After the river crossing was completed, Ludwig became cautious, and the entire army began another large-scale construction, at least to build wooden walls and some wooden sheds.

Although the old city of Bremen has been reduced to ruins, the overall outline of the city remains the same, and the broken walls and ruins are an accusation of blood and tears. They are still the basis for reconstruction that the army can use.

All the foundations of the old fence were used, and new timber was used to build the wooden wall again on the old site. As many as 20,000 people can move very efficiently at the same time, and a solid forward base is rising from the ground.

The city is still called Bremen, but it is now a complete military city.

The first snow in winter could fall at any time, and the vigilance against snowfall forced the Frank army to prioritize building their forts. It's not that they can't move forward on the snow, it's because the existence of a logistics base allows the army to advance and retreat freely.

Thanks to the funding from the Archdiocese of Cologne, Ludwig has high confidence in the logistics of this battle. He is currently carrying a large amount of supplies and linen to keep out the cold. Each soldier also tries to bring as many personal belongings as possible before setting off. .

Except for those Sorbian slave soldiers...

Meanwhile, Aric's fleet had entered the Atlantic Ocean.

The Russian army suffered more than thirty casualties, and their weapons suffered serious damage.

I didn’t think that my retreat at night was cowardly. The brothers were already fighting as hard as they could. In fact, because the legendary Frankish regular army appeared, even Aric, who had experienced many battles, had never seen such a huge army arrayed at the same time. At least Ross No one has ever listed an array of this size.

Arik was not frightened. In fact, he was eager for a decisive battle to break out on the Weser River, so that he could achieve great success in the holy decisive battle with bloodthirsty.

The squadron was retreating with all its strength, especially against the north wind and quickly going up and down the increasingly choppy sea to the mouth of the Elbe River, and then forced its way along the river.

The Ross Squadron had to hurry up and follow the experience of many people. The army started from Bremen, especially the cavalry, and could reach the Elbe River two days after crossing the Weser River. Although Aric did not think that the enemies dared to pass the Elbe River smoothly without even having ships, the Ross army was an outsider after all. Maybe there was a ferry in the nearby area that only the Frankish nobles knew about?

Arik did not dare to neglect, and they sailed continuously and returned to Hamburg on the fifth day after their retreat.

He personally reported what he saw and heard to Rurik, and the stability of the North came to an abrupt end.

After hearing the news, Rurik couldn't care about anything else and summoned all the nobles to hold a war meeting of the Northern Alliance.

Rurik's two wives, Nolen and Bayahir, were visible to the naked eye at the last moment. There was a high probability that the child would be born in the next week. After all, he had his own calculation of the day.

Although the birth of a new life makes him happy, the top priority now is still facing a decisive battle.

In the stone chamber high up in the city, the nobles and generals listened to Arik's talk. What he described immediately aroused large-scale discussions.

A discussion is a discussion. Putting aside all the miscellaneous things, a core question is on the table - what should we do.

Everyone is looking at Rurik, although they have more or less their own opinions on the next action.

There were also radicals among them, who mobilized a large army to directly enter the south bank of the Elbe River through the pontoon bridge, advance towards Bremen, and use the two armies to fight against each other in order to avenge and complain.

This is a very happy and quick way to solve problems, and it was also the favorite method of European nobles in this era.

Their eyes were trembling, obviously they had something to say.

"You all tell me. What should we do?"

Arik spoke frankly: "The enemy is a strong army, and fighting against such a strong army is full of honor. We can find them through the bridge for a decisive battle."

After speaking from this, more people couldn't stop talking.

Rurik won through large-scale decisive battles over land. Ross had experienced many such battles and won great victories every time. Rurik felt that his men were somewhat path-dependent, and they actually ignored some important intelligence detected by Arik's armed forces.

The enemy had an astonishing number of heavy infantry and heavy cavalry, their uniforms were basically uniform, and their formations were stylish. He particularly noticed Arik's description that "they seemed to have a flag force as well."

Who knew the most about the regular troops in East Francia? There are many smart people in this stone room.

The Frankish regular army did have a standard formation, and the armor coverage rate of such elites was 100%.

Although the Russian army would not be defeated in a large-scale battle with such a powerful army, Rurik was worried about a tragic victory. He didn't want to ruin his brothers' temperament, so he needed to find a way to go.

Rurik looked at Liudov and said deliberately: "Everyone is eager for a decisive battle. The Franks may have mobilized 30,000, or even 40,000 people. The south bank of the Weser River is full of their soldiers. They They will also be able to repair the bridge quickly, they even repelled our fleet.”

Rurik's use of "repulse" once really made his cousin dissatisfied, so he used his eyes to stop him and continued his words: "So, Liudov, our army must also invest a lot of troops in this decisive battle. How do you do? Your Saxony How many people can the army take out?"

"This... is at most ten thousand people. King Ross, regarding this decisive battle, I..."

"You tell me."

"I think it might not be a good idea to fight the Franks through the pontoon bridge. I have many soldiers, but their strength is too weak. They are just ragged men, and most of their weapons are spears. Rather than saying that they are A warrior is better said to be a farmer and herdsman. Thank you for looking up to me, but I don’t have the strength. The most I can do is blow myself up in Hamburg.”

"Is that so?" Rurik nodded, feeling secretly happy. "I can also see that the quality of your soldiers is not good enough to fight a tough battle. So... I decided that the main force will be held in Hamburg."

Rurik's determination undoubtedly disappointed the radicals. He had his own explanation: "Russia and Denmark formed a coalition, and now they can put out up to 6,000 men. The brothers have been fighting from the spring to the current winter, and now the enemy army is attacking Come on, it is no longer possible for us to evacuate in winter. Many soldiers are showing fatigue, and our cavalry does not know where they have gone. The enemy has an amazing number of armored warriors, and they will also fire some long-range arrows. Our troop strength is even lower than theirs , overall we don’t have a significant advantage. But!”

The key lies in this "but".

"The Elbe River is wide enough, let them attack us personally! Who of you believes that they can cross the cold river water to attack us in winter? Our fleet is anchored on the river, and we will confront them here and look for opportunities. Attack them. Everything is at my disposal, and I will wait for the work. But...it doesn’t mean that we just defend blindly.”

As a result, a special tactical plan was formulated.

The coalition forces will hold the area opposite the pontoon bridge on the Elbe River, and the large ships will be moored sideways as fixed forts. A large number of long rowing boats and even ordinary small barges were placed on the riverside on the side of Hamburg, so that the army could board the boats and row to the other side to fight at any time.

The coalition as a whole will be on the defensive and the military will continue to train.

However, the Russian army will continue to send out a surprise force and rush to the Weser River again, but the timing of their actions will be extremely delicate.

Arik led another major mission, and this time he specially brought along the Finnish longbowmen from Gevlo and even some standing army soldiers. In this way, a powerful force with a strength of a thousand men was assembled. They would float in large and small sailboats to the salt boiling place at the mouth of the Elbe River and stationed there.

Of course, Rurik didn't know when Frank's army would appear. If they appeared in a place visible to the naked eye, it would prove that there was a high probability of emptiness behind them. They all arranged for a small boat to quickly float to the mouth of the Elbe River where the Qi soldiers were stationed, and ordered them to take action immediately. By continuing to destroy the bridges rebuilt by the enemy, this time the surprise troops must firmly control the ferry. Since the Frankish army also has extraordinary long-range shooting masters, let's see whose arrows are renamed and the Finnish longbowmen go into battle collectively.

What is the pattern? This is the pattern.

This was just a decisive battle. Under the control of King Rus, the scale of the battlefield became extremely huge.

The plan has been set, and then it’s just a matter of waiting.