Rise of Rurik

Their feet were wrapped in cloth or leather, and their frostbitten hands grasped short spears and axes. Fifteen hundred Sorbian slave soldiers beat their own crude shields with crude weapons, making a rumbling sound to embolden themselves.

They were so bloatedly dressed that it was obvious to the naked eye that they had no armor at all. Such an enemy may not be able to inflict serious damage when slashed with a sword, but it will be severely damaged if stabbed with a spear.

Liudov led his elite Saxon peasant soldiers to completely break away from the main coalition formation. This appearance of the Duke taking the lead greatly boosted morale.

Rurik looked calm and let the cold wind blow his golden beard. He recruited messengers and ordered the Finnish longbowmen to provide three rounds of support to the Saxons in the first battle.

As a result, the Finnish flag troops, which stood in a solemn formation, quickly transformed into a linear formation under the order of Count Jevlo of Finland.

"Everyone! Three arrows! Fire a salvo! Act with the command flag!"

Javlo gave orders in the Suomi dialect of Finnish. Under his command were the Suomi, Kovin, Vips and Rudy people, all of Pan-Finnish origin. They had no chance of having any contact with the Frankish Kingdom, but now these people on the edge of the known world were involved in this decisive battle.

The target of their attack this time was the Sorbians, a small tribe living in the inland forests of Central Europe, although they did not know it.

In a war involving so many peoples, reindeer nomads in the Arctic Circle are shooting arrows at Slavs in the forests of Central Europe.

At the command, the flag fell, and the Tuomu longbow strengthened by deer sinews fired a volley. The array was filled with the crisp sound of arrow shafts rubbing against bow handles. In an instant, more than six hundred arrows took advantage of the north wind and floated towards Sobu. Attack queue of people.

The arrows flew overhead, causing Liudov's PTSD. Just half a year ago, these bow-wielders shot their Aleb fortress into hedgehogs. No one understands these short archers better than Liudov. Weird and terrifying.

Fortunately, this time the Ross army was friendly.

The Sorbians were somewhat mentally prepared for this kind of arrow attack. They continued to form a dense formation, supporting each other and moving forward on the slippery ice. When they heard the buzzing sound in the air, they all raised their crude wooden shields above their heads and continued to move forward while trying their best to maintain the formation.

But the arrows still came like raindrops, relying on their numerical advantage to deal probabilistic damage.

Arrow clusters may have been smashed into the river ice, and they were immediately spread out after cutting out a mark.

Or directly smash through the wooden shield of the Sobnu soldier, even hitting the person's arm.

They began to be hit by arrows, and the once solid formation began to lose its balance. They still maintained their advancing momentum, but the courage they had at the beginning was quickly being worn away by the rain of arrows.

The person who was hit by the arrow fell down on the ice and rolled around covering his wound. Some people tried to help their companions, but slipped hard.

In the center of the queue, a single person who fell here caused a chain reaction, so that nearly a hundred people slipped and fell. At first glance, it seemed as if they were all killed.

After three consecutive rounds of arrow attacks, the Sobnu soldiers could only maintain the most basic formation. The damage they suffered from the arrow strikes was not serious, but the queue became chaotic. Without a suitable frontline commander to organize again, it was impossible to return to the original organization level.

Because the fierce battle is about to begin.

So there were three volleys. Rurik was worried that his support would hurt friendly forces, so he stopped more support. The rest of the fighting Rus' army can wait and see, since Liudov and his Saxon army yearn for the glory of victory, the opportunity is now.

Liudov, who had taken off his decent clothes and did not want to be the target of public criticism, dressed in a low-key manner. He was still standing at the thick end of his column, commanding the entire army from a safe area.

Seeing the enemy being smashed to pieces by arrows, the Saxon army was shocked.

Taking advantage of this remaining power, Liu Doufu, who felt that the time was ripe, suddenly ordered: "Raise the spearhead and stab them to death! No mercy!"

The spears suddenly stood horizontally, and the Saxon soldiers held them as flat as possible with both hands. In an instant, thousands of spear poles formed a hedgehog formation!

"Charge! Kill them! No mercy!"

This was Liudov's final order. The passionate warriors forgot their fear and ignored the injuries and deaths caused by the battle. They ran with steady steps on skates, so that the "spear wall push" that should have been steady and steady turned into the "barbarian pig rush" since ancient times.

On the contrary, this kind of raid was full of momentum, and the number of combatants on both sides was close. Obviously, the Saxon army was more energetic!

The sudden attack on the spear wall was unexpected. The Saxon soldiers slid on the ice without any worries. Their spikes kicked out a lot of ice chips, and then the spearheads slammed into the unarmored body of the Sorbian.

The terrifying fierce battle finally began.

When the stabbing begins, the enemy must be stabbed into bloody corpses before it can stop. These Saxon soldiers burst out with great courage, or because Duke Liudov was present, they had a reason to fight to the end - all of them fought side by side with the grandson of the hero.

In just the first moment of the collision, more than 200 Sobnu soldiers were injured or killed. Countless spearheads poked and slapped, and the spear wall formed a wide attack surface. A Sobnu soldier often faced attacks from several spears, which was not something that a wooden shield could withstand.

Some people focus on stabbing, some attack suddenly from above, and some soldiers deliberately stab the enemy's feet and calves.

The short spears of the Sorbians were unable to counterattack at close range, so they had no choice but to throw the spears. This was the only damage they could cause.

Seeing the casualties of their companions, the Saxons were furious, and they advanced even more fiercely.

The Sorbians were still struggling to support Naihe and kept retreating. They had lost many brothers, and the damn spear wall was still pressing closer. Should we retreat? No! The king of the Franks would hang anyone who retreated without authorization. But as he continued to advance and fight, the commander was riddled with holes from countless spears. Look! The ice surface was already blood red.

All this was clearly seen by the Frankish army watching the battle not far away.

The Frankish soldiers were very happy that they were not the ones who died. All the casualties came from the Sobnu soldiers. When these people died, they died. The soldiers had no empathy in this regard.

King Ludwig of East Francia pretended to be calm. He mounted his horse again and straightened out his armor.

He could not ignore the humiliation that Rurik of Rus had just humiliated him. The self-proclaimed brave warrior finally showed his full courage.

Using the Sorbians as flesh scouts was a tactic, so to speak. This group of people deceived the Russians into disorder, and then the main force launched an all-out attack. Under normal circumstances, this tactic always works. Knowing that the Russians have sharp arrows, Ludwig wants to use the flesh and blood of the Sorbians to deceive the enemy's long-range firepower and gain opportunities for close combat.

The general environment of the battlefield was too intense, and perhaps it was time to sit back and assess the situation. After all, the fire in Ludwig's heart had already spewed out.

Unwilling to wait any longer, he organized all the cavalry that had been prepared.

He held out his sword and banged the iron helmet with his crown several times with the hilt, deliberately making a sound to attract everyone's attention.

Then, he waved his sword and shouted: "Children of Charlemagne! This is your fateful battle! Fight against the rebels! Fight against the barbarians! Charge with me!"

The trumpeters and drummers who had been waiting for a long time immediately made loud noises, and all the soldiers who had taken a break were already sharpening their swords.

Look! The king led the heavy cavalry to attack!

This is an order for the entire army to attack!

In an instant, a huge roar erupted from the Frankish army formation, causing all the snow in the heather forest behind them to fall.

At this moment, Ludwig was gambling with his life. Your honor has been violated by barbarians, your territory has been occupied by barbarians, and there are traitors at work. If you can't avenge your shame with victory... you are not a man.

The Archbishop of Cologne and the accompanying priests prayed for the attacking army. They became a group of bystanders and saw an attack of ten thousand people that was never heard of.

The armor of the medium-sized infantrymen shone brightly in the sun, and they all took pictures of the relatively neat infantry formation in front of the formation. Behind them came a larger number of peasant soldiers dressed in various colors.

The infantry will be the backbone of this battle, while the cavalry is the element that opens the breakthrough in the battle.

It seems that the forces assembled by both sides are roughly equal. Whoever can make a tactical breakthrough at this moment will win.

Ludwig tightened his grip on the reins and really took the lead in the charge. His subordinates were afraid that the king would have three advantages and two disadvantages, so they hurriedly stimulated the horses with spurs and tried their best to surpass the king at a high speed. In this process of chasing each other, the cavalry quickly rushed in front of Liudov's Saxon army.

The Saxons were still fighting fiercely with the Sorbians, and they were not prepared to defend themselves against the cavalry.

Liudov would never have imagined that those Frankish troops would ignore the casualties of friendly troops, and the cavalry's iron hooves had already stepped heavily on the backs of friendly troops.

Because Ludwig always regarded the Sorbians as cattle and horses, it was time for these tool men to make their final contribution. They were beaten to pieces by the cavalry. Thanks to these people, when the cavalry began to collide with the Saxon army, Liudov had no time to lead his troops in defense.

The heavy cavalry rode directly on the face. The rider roared and straightened his spear. He first stabbed a Saxon warrior to death, and then trampled on another with his iron hoof.

The half-ton cavalry directly smashed through the large and thin Saxon Army array. In just the first meeting, the entire Saxon Army's 1,000 elites were knocked to pieces. Not all of them died in the battle. Many of them had stars in their eyes after being hit and lay on the ice dizzy.

Poor Liudov, he was knocked down sideways by a cavalryman, and he was clearly protected by a helmet. As a result, he felt his old face warm with stars in his eyes, and when he wiped it with his hand, he saw blood all over his hand.

In an instant, his courage collapsed, as did the elite warriors he had finally selected.

Those who survived only wanted to escape, but a large number of arrows, javelins, and projectiles flew past them. So much so that some people who dared to stand up were stabbed straight through their bodies by javelins, or even had their entire heads chopped off by cast-iron projectiles.

In front were countless Frank warriors advancing steadily, and behind were raging cavalry and arrows from friendly forces.

Liudov, who wanted to escape, saw this and cleverly got down. He touched the body of his companion who was trampled to death by the cavalry in embarrassment, and pulled him over to temporarily use it as a cover while staring at him looking for an opportunity to escape.

However, after a while, he was shocked to see the group of cavalry come back with a carbine, and then trampled on the enemy and our soldiers lying on the ground wailing, but this time the cavalry's stampede had no obvious purpose.

In the end what happened?

Just as Ludwig's overwhelming cavalry charge declared the death of the elite Saxon army in just one round, Rurik's side had been prepared to avoid collision since the Frank army began its general attack.

Rurik also thought that Liudov could support him for a while, but unfortunately they were easily pierced like a blank sheet of paper.

The situation was already extremely dangerous, and at this moment Rurik had no time to care about the life and death of Liudov and his Saxon allies.

He issued the order for a full-scale war.

In an instant, the densely packed spear poles that stood like a forest were straightened one after another. The soldiers of the Russian-Danish coalition let out a rhythmic Viking war cry, pointing their spearheads straight ahead.

All the shooters opened fire at the same time, causing great harassment to the Frank cavalry who continued to charge.

The situation that Rurik hoped for did not fully occur. The so-called cavalryman slipped and caused his companions behind to continue to slip. This kind of thing happened on a small scale, and coupled with the attacks of arrows and projectiles, it did not directly curb the assault.

The next step is to see whether the cavalry is more brave or the spear wall is more explainable.

As many as five hundred sharpened pine poles were lifted up, and each pole was controlled by multiple strong men. A section of it was tilted and stuffed into the ice hole dug in advance, appearing in the form of a deer holding back horses.

The situation changed so quickly that Ludwig could not imagine or even dare to think about it. He had never seen Luzhai refuse horses in his life, and he was not even willing to admit that his elite cavalry could defeat a group of spearmen.

He was furious at Robert for consuming his 3,000 heavy cavalry. It is said that the cavalry was killed on this battlefield.

Now, he believes it.

But it's too late!

At the critical moment, Ludwig cleverly pulled back from the brink and personally avoided tragedy, while his two thousand cavalry had already collided with the spear wall on a large scale.

The cavalry crashed some torsion slingshots, forcing all the archers and crossbowmen to escape into the spear wall array. Some crossbowmen did not hide. They drew their swords or axes, half-crouched in front of the brothers in the first row holding spears, quickly took off their shields, and pointed the swords to the front, using their bodies to strengthen the brothers in the back row. defense.

There were some big ones among the densely packed spearheads, and the spears were longer than Frank's spears. The so-called Rurik deduced the maximum attack length of the enemy's spears based on what was captured on the battlefield, so he lengthened his own spears.

The most brutal collision happened!

The temporary spear shafts made of a large amount of pine wood were broken one after another, and the spearheads were pierced into the bodies of the war horses.

Those prefabricated pieces of sharpened pine wood worked wonders, delaying the cavalry attack. The cavalrymen were either knocked down or their bodies were torn apart due to the strong force of the collision.

The cavalry attack was completely contained, and the Rus-Danish army, which had been prepared for a long time, only paid a small price.

There were killed and wounded horses everywhere in front of the battle, and their heavy falls once forced Rurik to worry that the ice would break. The most terrifying thing did not happen. Obviously this year's unusually severe winter helped the coalition forces a lot.

The spearhead had been broken. Within five seconds, the coalition soldiers transformed into sword and shield bearers, or picked up the long-handled forest axes lying on the ground. They wielded a variety of weapons and slashed at the dying enemy horses, which would be suppressed. The cavalry chopped them into minced meat.

The archers who retreated to the rear stayed in the room, and the warriors standing on the frozen ship seized the opportunity to immediately throw arrows and javelins to provide long-range support that lacked accuracy.

"Ah! What's going on! My cavalry? Is it dead?!"

Ludwig subconsciously wanted to get away from the battlefield. For a moment, he felt that he had little chance of victory, at least not much chance of winning a big victory with a small loss.

The battle order has been issued, and more than 10,000 infantrymen launched a full-scale attack! Even if there is a big problem in the front battle, as the king, he can no longer convey the emergency order.

The arrow has been fired and it cannot be retrieved.

All Ludwig could do was to continue to retreat with the cavalry, which had completely lost its impact and was lucky enough to be able to evacuate.

This withdrawal was like a rout, and the king's crotch-pull performance cast a heavy psychological shadow on all the attacking infantry. They are also helpless, even though they realize that the front is a meat grinder, and the people behind are pushing the people in front, and how a grain of sand in the torrent makes its own sound, they are rushing towards death.

Ludwig, however, had already evaded tactics and retreated to the rear, euphemistically claiming to be commanding from behind.

This gave Liudov, who survived the disaster, a chance, and also gave a chance to the elite Saxon soldiers who could still move.

There seemed to be a hundred people still attacking, and the crossbowmen who re-cocked their weapons planned to kill these people.

Rurik took a closer look and saw that the staggering guy with a bloody face there was not Liudov himself.

"Don't kill us! We are one of our own!"

No, those people are already shouting.

But behind these people, the "Iron Man" infantry of the Frank Army shimmered in the sun. They carried a very strong coercive momentum, like a wall constantly approaching the coalition forces.

To be honest, Rurik didn't want to have a strategic decisive battle with the East Frankish army in this ghost place. Obviously, all his ideas were based on the enemy's rational consideration.

On the contrary, King Ludwig's behavior in this war was simply reckless.

Then use barbarity to defeat barbarism!

Rurik raised his sword high and soon greeted Liudov, who had saved his life.

"I thought you were dead." Rurik looked as cold as a ferocious beast.

"Almost died."

"Are you injured? Is it your own blood or the enemy's blood on your face?"

"My head almost moved. Damn it, my whole army was almost wiped out. Your method is still effective, your battle is full of dead horses..."

Is this guy acting stupid? It's clear that a full-scale battle is about to begin, but he's still chattering here.

"You'd better go back to the rear and continue to command the rest of your people. What's next is a full-scale war, go all out!"

"All right!"

With that, Liudov and his remaining soldiers disappeared without a trace.

A large group of Saxon peasant soldiers who were severely lacking in training were embarrassed to use, and in the end it was the Viking army that had to solve the problem.

A surge of pride surged into Rurik's heart. He suddenly left the team, stood on the corpse of the enemy in front of the battle, raised his sword high and shouted: "All northerners! This is the most glorious battle in our lives!" Blood sacrifice to Hanukkah! Blood sacrifice to Odin!”

"Odin!" The man with the loud voice roared the names of the gods.

In a short time, everyone roared in the name of Odin.

Now, the unmoving coalition forces, holding spearheads and swords, began to advance slowly and frontally, and the decisive battle on the glacier began...