Rise of Rurik

Three hundred Frank cavalry scouts ran south through the snow. They gradually saw the smoke and dust rising from the south, and they couldn't help but feel nervous. Suddenly, a lying figure appeared on the road ahead, making the already tense mood even worse.

"Go and take a look at the situation ahead." A captain ordered.

The two riders rode away cautiously, and sure enough they saw clearly that the frozen body lying on the ground was indeed there. As they dismounted for inspection, more critical information was discovered.

The deceased was clearly a Frankish warrior! There is also a broad-edged iron sword hanging on his waist.

The cavalry hurriedly returned to duty and reported nervously: "Sir! It's our dead man. It seems that Bremen has really been attacked again."

"Damn it! Is what the people who escaped back told the truth?!"

The cavalry looked up again and saw that the smoke and dust were indeed not deceiving.

"Keep moving forward!" The captain raised his lance and ordered again, "Everyone should proceed with caution."

The further south you go on the Roman Avenue, the more you find frozen corpses, the most common of which are Frankish soldiers.

When Bremen encountered new disasters, only a handful of those who took advantage of the chaos to escape could join the king's army in the north. Most of the escapees died mercilessly when the ice and snow turned into icicles on the roadside.

The cavalrymen became more and more frightened. Many of them thought that the matter had been found out and planned to evacuate quickly. Unexpectedly, the captain ordered, "We must get to Bremen. Those people will live or die. We must see the food situation." , don’t let the enemy destroy it.”

That being said, everyone probably has the answer in their hearts.

The cavalry finally reached the source of the smoke, which was a mess. Some flames were still burning, and there were hideous and terrifying charred "dead branches" everywhere, which were incompatible with the silvery white scene around them.

"Are...the dead? Are they all our wounded soldiers?"

The cavalrymen were in a state of confusion from shock.

They wandered around the ruins again. Through the smoke and dust, the ships displayed on the cold river were particularly eye-catching. The flag patterns on the masts made them all see the true face of the enemy - the Russians.

"Damn it. Didn't these people escape? Why are they back again? It's actually a trick!"

By now the cavalry captain could go back to resume his duties. The so-called Bremen was still in ruins, with ruined granaries and charred corpses all over the ground visible to the naked eye.

This transportation node in Bremen has collapsed, and all the crossbars on the bridge have disappeared.

Suddenly, they heard a distant horn.

The cavalrymen, who were already shocked by the sight before them, felt panic and anger in their hearts. When they heard the horn sound, they knew that the Russians were actually going to launch a challenge.

On the other side of the battlefield, the Russian army entrenched on the south bank of the Weser River finally waited for its "guests."

Arik was overjoyed: "Haha, brothers, those guys are here again. They are actually cavalry? Follow me to fight them!"

So the soldiers, who had been impatient for a long time, began to row across the river. If it weren't for a group of "guests" waiting for them, the army would have left long ago with the spoils of war. At one point they didn't want to wait any longer and finally waited for the fat.

Arik led almost all of his men, whether they were Russian sword and shield bearers, Finnish longbowmen, or heavily armored berserkers. Even Saxon warriors wearing captured armor.

They drifted across the Weser River as quickly as possible, and after landing they could pounce on the Frank cavalry.

What arrived before the soldiers were the arrows of the longbowmen. A sharp whooshing sound was heard in the air. The Frank scout was caught off guard and was immediately injured.

"What's going on! Escape quickly!" The cavalry captain was hesitant about whether to shoot, but now the sudden arrow helped him make the choice.

The pointed arrow clusters penetrated deeply into the soldiers' bodies. The wounded soldiers endured the pain and did not bother to pull out the arrows on their bodies and fled on horseback. The three hundred light cavalry scouts acted as if they were about to collapse at the first touch.

After all, they were just light cavalry, seeking death in battle against an astonishing number of enemy infantry.

They still completed their mission and headed north with the intelligence they obtained. Now this evacuation is not glorious.

Looking at the fleeing figures of Frank's soldiers, Arik, who originally thought he could kill some more and gain new skills, suddenly felt that his persistence these days was like a joke.

He yelled at the fugitives and asked the enemy to turn back and fight for 300 rounds.

"Is this what you said about waiting for a while before making military exploits?" Arik complained to the panting Grund.

The latter shrugged helplessly: "I'm afraid they were frightened by your burned masterpiece."

"Maybe. What's next? Are we still here?"

"Maybe we should leave. It's up to you to make the decision. I'm worried that the river will gradually freeze, and then our big ship will be stuck in the ice and unable to evacuate." Grund said cautiously.

"Will it really freeze?"

"At least in many parts of Denmark the streams must freeze in winter. You should ask the Saxons in the army about this."

"It's better to rest a little longer and I'll make up my mind."

The army had gained a lot from plundering, and it made no sense to continue to stay in the already scorched Bremen. Theoretically, placing an army here can indeed block the enemy's retreat, but Arik received no such order, and none of the brothers wanted to miss the battle in the north.

According to reports from the Saxons in the army, whether the Weser River freezes depends on God's will.

The Weser River in this time and space may freeze on a large scale in winter. Firstly, the climate of the current era is gradually turning colder. Secondly, although the river is relatively wide, there are many twists and turns in the interior, making it difficult for seawater to flow back.

Since there is a risk of a complete freeze, evacuation is very necessary.

The squadron undoubtedly consumed more time. They had another meal of boiled wheat and then left...

Calm returned to both sides of the Weser River, and the fire in the ruins of Bremen was completely extinguished. Has the world really returned to peace? No, that was just the illusion before the rage.

The squadron drifted back into the Atlantic, where they encountered a storm caused by Arctic cold.

The ship was heaving up and down on the ferocious sea surface, the clear sky disappeared, and the sky was covered with haze. Soon there was a large amount of snow like countless knives, giving all members of the squadron a dangerous blow in the biting cold wind.

As the five-rowed longboat capsized, some of the people sitting on it were thrown into the icy water, along with their cargo. The personnel were immediately swallowed by the sea!

"No!" Arik watched helplessly as his own people were buried in the ocean. There were Russians, Finns, and many accompanying Saxons.

Those big ships are stocky but still look small in the waves.

The Atlantic Ocean often encounters Arctic storms in winter, because the Russians never sailed in the Atlantic Ocean in winter in the past, and they know nothing about winter storms.

People were hiding in the cabins piled with loot, and the cabins were like huge herring cans due to the squeeze of people. They can only seek some safe shelter here, while some brave sailors are struggling to rescue outside the cabin.

The sailors are just mortals. They are not fighting against the gods. They just hope that the ship will not be sunk by the huge waves.

The Baltic Sea does not have such bad sea conditions. The dark waves are like mountains. The ship is forced to fight against the wind and move against the waves, twisting and turning on the waves.

Only large ships could withstand this torture, while all rowing longships gradually sank into the ocean in the process.

At least Arik kept his cool during the crisis.

The icy waves kept washing the deck. Arik tied his waist with a rope and fixed himself to the ship. He struggled to maintain the situation here. His existence itself maintains the morale of the sailors, and thus continues to seem to keep the ship sailing.

The big ship tried its best to collect the people on the small boat and moved as much loot as possible. As for those who fell into the water, the ropes that were thrown did catch some brothers, and most of the people who fell into the water have perished in the ocean.

An unyielding man looked up at the dark clouds and shouted: "Odin! Didn't I do enough? Are you accusing me of cowardice for withdrawing? Do you need more blood sacrifices?" Arik's question was meaningless. , the howling north wind continues, and the ocean shows its furious nature.

The people who were surviving in the cabin were tortured to the point of vomiting and diarrhea, and the people left behind on the deck all tied themselves up with ropes.

The huge waves and strong winds seemed to never stop, but the strong winds were also powerful forces. After losing all the rowing boats, the Ross Squadron was still on its way back.

It was they who paid an unexpectedly high price, with as many as two hundred people of all kinds perishing in the sea, in exchange for a new understanding of the winter Atlantic Ocean.

Until the fleet returned to the mouth of the Elbe River.

The suffering is finally over, but the waters here only have no huge waves due to inland river reasons. They entered a natural haven, but all the rowing boats used for towing were lost, and sailing up the Elbe was unsustainable.

When you see the coastline, you see hope. The dark world cannot hide their large camp at the mouth of the river.

Due to the entry of the Russian-Danish coalition forces, a village suddenly grew up at the mouth of the Elbe River. However, the buildings in the village were blown to and fro by the strong wind, and even those who stayed behind hid in the available houses.

At least it was a haven, with no big waves and a fleet of rowing boats piled on the shore.

The north wind was still fierce, but it was no longer deadly. At this point, Arik was finally able to settle down, gather his men and begin to take refuge ashore.

The entire squadron drifted at sea for two days and one night, and the entire army stayed awake all night. Arik's eyes were bloodshot, and he dragged his extremely tired body to continue to hold on, which made the already highly tense nerves continue to tighten.

The rowing boats on the shore were like sacred objects. The first people who braved the cold and waded ashore quickly used axes to cut the ropes that fixed the rowing boats, and used these boats as barges to transport all the people ashore.

It was not safe just ashore, and they felt aggrieved and regretful when they saw that none of the camp buildings when they set out were still there.

The snow is still falling, the north wind is still howling, and if you can't take shelter on the shore, you will still freeze to death.

The people who had just escaped from death no longer cared about their dignity. They gathered their energy and rushed into the forest, burrowing like gophers into the houses that could still be used.

Undoubtedly, this behavior made the people who were hiding here scream weird. After learning that the soldiers who came back were all troops fighting south, the defenders expressed sympathy for their miserable experience.

Some wooden sheds were immediately erected, and some worked hard to make windbreaks out of the snow.

Sincerely, someone pushed down the well-fixed rowing boat on the shore, and quickly covered it with some wood, covered it with sails, and reinforced it with snow, creating a warm and sheltered nest from the wind.

When someone did this and did it in a decent way, all the rowing longboats visible to the naked eye in the camp suffered.

There is no need to consider that doing this is sabotaging the ship, brothers just want to save their lives!

This is an arctic cold current sweeping across Europe. In the west, its power will stop at the Alps. In the east, it will cause blizzards in Sevastopol, Eastern Rome, in the Black Sea region, and inflict heavy snowfall on Pegasus on the far coast of the Caspian Sea. A heavy snowfall in the Cheneg camp.

Large-scale snowfall has begun in the Rus' hometown, and the Novgorod region is also experiencing a new round of snowfall.

Mountains and rivers have greatly weakened the power of the cold current, but in the endless Atlantic Ocean, it shows its full power.

The squadron was lucky enough. If they had not sailed close to the coastline, the large sailboats including the Aurora class in the fleet would have capsized.

The eight large sailboats currently in service in the Kingdom of Ross are essentially imitation caravel sailboats with a maximum displacement of 300 tons. They have good resistance to ocean storms, but when encountering stronger storms, they have no resistance at all. significance.

Arik boasted that he had saved his life, but when his tense nerves were relieved, his energy and spirit, which had been supported by endless adrenaline, collapsed in an instant.

Many warriors, like Arik, fell into coma one after another after burrowing into various shacks like gophers.

Everyone was so exhausted. This kind of exhaustion from the bone marrow was better than three days and three nights of bloody battles with the enemy. This was the first time for Grund, a senior soldier in the team, to encounter this kind of thing. He also fell into a coma caused by extreme exhaustion.

The large ships anchored one after another at the mouth of the Elbe River. The ships were left unattended, and indeed they did not drift away.

Because the river is freezing quickly!

Although it is not as cold as freezing three feet in a day, because the highest temperature every day has been moving near the freezing point in the past days, the ice layer of the Elbe River has been slowly expanding. This is very obvious in the internal river channels, but not so obvious in the estuary area due to the salt water of the ocean.

Affected by the thickening ice in the upper reaches, the runoff speed of the Elbe River continues to decrease, and the river is quickly reaching an extremely low value of its flow speed.

But all this is meaningless to Arik and his army. The brothers who suffered heavy losses just want to have a good rest, like hibernating animals to escape the extreme cold.

…

If he had known this, Arik would not leave the ruins of Bremen even if he died. He would rather build a wooden shed in the forest to survive the cold wave comfortably. But as soon as they entered the sea, they encountered a sudden change in climate and suffered unexpected and horrific losses.

This storm is fair to all. It is a major test that generals must consider when fighting in winter.

The cold wave hit the Hamburg area, home to tens of thousands of Saxons, and it is the core area of ​​the Principality of Saxony today.

The main force of Rurik and his Russian army was a guest army. Since they had prepared for the winter in advance, they did not suffer much losses when encountering large-scale snowfall.

The situation of those Saxons began to get worse. As the cold wave hit, a group of frozen people were carried out of the shacks the next day.

They were refugees fleeing the reprisals of the Frankish army. They left their homes and took refuge in the north of the Elbe River. They expected to escape the Franks' butchery, but suffered heavy losses from the cold attack.

The dead were mainly children and the elderly, who froze to death due to their weak constitution.

Every cold winter is a screening for everyone. Even in a peaceful state, ordinary peasant families, whether they are Saxons or Frannes, are at risk of freezing to death. Young children are the most dangerous group, and a large number of children freeze to death every year. For this reason, families have to do their best to have children to offset this premature death.

Is this punishment from God? The clergy pointed out that this was indeed the case.

Some children froze to death, indicating that this was a conspiracy of Satan. An old man froze to death, it was also a conspiracy of Satan.

It would be better to blame all deaths on evil spirits. Even though everyone knows that as long as they do their best to keep warm, they can largely avoid freezing to death. Unfortunately, ordinary peasant families do not even have enough cloth and leather.

As long as you are wealthy, you can avoid most abnormal deaths. In this way, Hamburg, the Ross-Danish camp, and the Saxon settlements present completely two worlds.

The Russians did not have to worry about freezing to death and frostbite, and the Danish army relying on them also received material supplies.

Rurik incorporated more supplies and distributed them to the Saxons, who had a large population. It was a matter of kindness to help some, but it was a duty not to give them.

Unless Liudov will sell out some interests of the Principality of Saxony for his people.

Liudov would definitely not do this. He could not do the deeds of saints such as Moses and Jesus described in the scriptures. He did not care at all whether people froze to death on a large scale. After all, it was natural for people to freeze to death every winter.

What he is most concerned about now is counting his trophies, presiding over the burial of the Saxon war dead, and selecting the brave men among the peasant soldiers as elite troops.

The cold wind and snow forced the battlefield to a standstill. The coalition forces were unable to pursue, and the enemy was unable to retreat. Everyone was avoiding the cold.

Liudov felt that he had gained a precious strategic respite. He took the time to select and organize his elite troops, arm them with captured Frankish weapons, and wait for a new war after the snowstorm ended.

Because he knew that the arrogant Ludwig would not give up easily. If this prince was a coward, he would not have done such a bad thing as imprisoning his father, Louis the Pious, nor would he have directly started a civil war.

Negotiations would only be possible if Ludwig was truly defeated.

Liudov did not want to completely break up with Ludwig. He hoped to force peace through war and restore the inherent peace in the Principality of Saxony. He even hoped to send someone to negotiate with Ludwig first after the snowstorm. If the other party acknowledged all his demands, everything would be fine, otherwise he would continue to fight.

Liudov knew very well that this was wishful thinking, and he also knew that King Rurik of Rus did not really want to kill Ludwig.

So was it possible that the thirty-year-old East Frankish king accepted himself as inferior?

Liudov was full of ambition, while Rurik pampered his wife and children and slept peacefully.

The coalition forces stood firm in the Hamburg area and waited in the cold wind. Ludwig and his Frankish army also stood firm in the forest. But because the latter received a terrifying report from the scout cavalry, he realized that his retreat had been cut off, and the entire army was really in an extremely passive situation.

"Am I going to die here? God! Am I a stupid person? No! I can still fight! Those barbarians and traitors must die! God, if you have mercy on your people, please send down your divine power to make Yi Let the North River freeze!”

Ludwig prayed silently, and the Archbishop of Cologne tried to calm the troops.

Everything is waiting for the storm to end...