Rise of Rurik

The Frankish soldiers who had fallen on the ground were piled on top of each other, their legs were pressed down by their companions, and their arms were stepped on by their companions. The people who slipped tried to stand up, and the result was a mess of stewed herrings in a pot.

The battlefield on the ice was red everywhere, and the Russian-Danish coalition forces kept poking and hacking at the poor people in front of them.

They kept shrinking the encirclement, vowing to kill all the enemies inside.

In fact, they are doing so.

The red-eyed Rurik had forgotten that he had to capture the enemy king Ludwig on the battlefield, even if he found the body.

He held a sword and led some of his cronies, stabbing and stabbing among the dead bodies, and shouted an order: "No mercy! No prisoners!"

Because, now that the war has started, the coalition forces no longer need to capture prisoners of war. Firstly, the Saxons had to retaliate for the Frankish army's deliberate killing half a century ago; secondly, all the Viking armies participating in the war had to sacrifice blood to Odin while taking revenge; thirdly, the coalition did not have more food to feed many prisoners.

Theoretically, Rurik could capture a group of prisoners of war and escort them back to the Kingdom of Rus, either as mining slaves or as logging slaves, who could be used as labor until death.

He was really furious and furious at Ludwig's vicious provocation before the war.

"Since you threatened to crucify us all for claiming victory over the French army, I will have all your soldiers chopped into pieces."

The coalition's circular encirclement has been completed. Countless spearheads and halberds are poking or chopping. Even though the Frank soldiers in the circle are protected by armor, they can only move in vain towards the center point in the face of attacks from all directions.

The coalition soldiers stepped on the enemy's corpses and continued to kill. The sounds of killing, screams, and weapons clashing were endless.

The halberd kept catching the French army's kite shield and pulling it off, and then stabbed directly with multiple spearheads.

The battlefield was like a reenactment of the final stage of the Battle of Canning. There were still thousands of Frankish troops compressed in the encirclement, but the people inside were squeezed so hard that they didn't even have room to swing their swords. The soldier was even pressed to the point where it was difficult to breathe. What was even more terrifying was that if he slipped, he would be trampled to death by his companions.

Some soldiers have fainted due to suffocation and are rapidly sliding towards the end of suffocation.

However, the spearheads and halberds of the coalition forces continued to kill, and the meat grinder continued to operate ruthlessly. Anyone who tried to fight back was immediately killed. Now that the sun was setting in the west, didn't the sinking sun symbolize the end of the Frank army?

On the other hand, the coalition soldiers involved in the pursuit are creating combat miracles one after another.

Javlo led the Finnish flag team, which was almost unscathed, to pursue the enemy with a hunting mentality. They all changed to broad-bladed hunting arrows, many of which had a large number of broad-bladed bone clusters.

To deal with the obviously unarmored peasant soldiers, arrow clusters used for hunting wild deer and wild boars are enough.

These old forest hunters killed ruthlessly, and some soldiers continued to pursue them.

But Yevluo was deeply shocked by the huge artifact in front of him.

Look! This was a group of men in black robes gathered in front of a huge cross that seemed to be made of pure gold.

The men in black robes were all holding crosses of different sizes in their hands, and they were mumbling something. Their fear and despair could not be concealed under their black hoods.

Seeing this, the Finnish archers took up their bows without hesitation and aimed their sharp arrow clusters at them one by one.

"Wait a minute!" Jevro suddenly ordered: "This is a large group of Frankish priests! It would be unlucky to kill them. Remove your swords and draw your swords to capture them!"

Because there is a small monastery in the Kingdom of Rus, this was specially approved by Rurik. In principle, the Holy See has an insignificant organizational structure within the territory of Rus, openly labeled as the "Diocese of Rus".

Theoretically only John Ingvar could do the job of spreading the gospel, but was this so-called bishop really pious? On the contrary, under Rurik's instruction, this man not only married a wife but even had a child.

Whether to believe in Odin or to believe in God, John Invall, a Danish slave, was caught in the middle. After all, his heart was greatly shaken and he did some actions that broke the commandments. However, if the Holy See cannot sanction matters such as "giving birth to children", such actions will be ignored.

Because it is the dream of the Holy See to spread the gospel to all the northern world, and it is what many missionaries must do even if they are martyred.

John Invall did not have any idea of ​​spreading faith. He was caught in the middle and could not figure out where he stood.

But he was a useful figure, and because of his existence, the Rus, various Vikings, as well as the East Slavs, and various Finnish tribes began to come into contact with serious church Latin.

This is why Javlo, as a Finn, has some knowledge of the Catholic faith.

Jevro wanted to call these men in black, but he could only think of one word.

"Pada!"

Upon hearing this, the desperate Archbishop Hardbold of Cologne suddenly trembled all over.

"You?! Are you a lost lamb?"

The words were spoken in Frankish, and naturally Javro didn't understand them at all. But he was not illiterate. His two sons, Kelha and Satuli, were of different ages, but they were dabbling in learning Latin. Javro also learned some for this, especially when he entered the Frankish world to fight, learning Latin became even more important. As for why not learn Frankish well? Maybe it doesn't matter.

Latin was a useful tool, allowing armies to pillage monasteries and even make priests obediently surrender their treasures with a single word of mouth.

Javlo is doing just that now.

"Surrender! Monk! Surrender! Avoid death!" he said.

They are all simple words, and they are all Latin words. The Archbishop of Cologne was even more puzzled. How could a strange man with an obviously short stature, black hair and a flat face speak the sacred language?

"Why surrender? We are God's servants." The Archbishop tried to explain nervously, "It's you! Please stop the killing immediately and stop these unjust acts."

Negotiate with them? Meaningless.

If it doesn't make sense, just take action.

Jevro shook his head. He noticed that the man who spoke was uncoordinated and bloated. It was obviously not because of his thick clothes, but because he was actually obese.

It's really weird. After all, that guy Eskil is still the Archbishop of the North. He is just a thin old man. If he is not forced, this guy will only live on bitter rye bread.

The man in black who spoke looked very wealthy. After all, the small cross he held in his hand was absolutely made of pure gold. Maybe this man was another bishop?

Unwilling to delay any longer, Gevro immediately sent people into action. The gold and silver crosses of the priests were roughly confiscated, and those who were unwilling to cooperate were simply stabbed to death.

The Archbishop of Cologne's dream was shattered. His students were protecting the "True Cross" with their bodies. Even though it was a fake, it was indeed a sacred object that belonged exclusively to the Diocese of Cologne.

Young priests were stabbed to death, becoming literal martyrs, their blood staining the holy relics.

The ruthless soldiers pulled the dying priest down and killed him with a sword.

Facing this horrific act, the Archbishop's eyes were as wide as bells. He was trembling all over and speechless, but he was so passive that he cooperated with the Finnish soldiers in binding him.

"If you had surrendered earlier, why would you force me to kill someone?" Yevlo said with a dull look on his face, giving the archbishop a hard look.

"Take all the prisoners away!" He ordered in Suomi dialect: "Take away all the gold and silver utensils found. Don't be greedy. Give these to King Rus to fight for our glory!"

Because what Finns need most is not gold and silverware. Although these things are good things, they are not more important than food, cloth and other daily necessities.

Immediately afterwards, the soldier inspected the huge gold cross and suddenly discovered that it was just a gold-plated object. There was also a very discordant hole in it, which looked like a cluster of arrows.

Since it's gold-plated, it's not very valuable.

The soldiers began to be busy cleaning the battlefield on the spot. They collected the swords and axes they saw, and tied them up with hemp ropes and tied them around their waists. Soon there were soldiers carrying heavy trophies with smiles on their faces. Take a step and jingle a step.

Compared with the Finns, the Saxon peasant soldiers with blood feud pursued them further. If the light of the setting sun had not quickly dimmed, their pursuit could have been further.

Even so, behind them were already a large number of enemies who were hacked from behind.

Even the simple spikes now have a powerful tactical advantage. They almost guarantee that the Saxon soldiers will not slip when chasing. On the other hand, the Frankish peasant soldiers who were fleeing had to roll and crawl to find a way to stand up and continue to escape once they slipped.

During this pursuit, the Saxons also suffered losses due to the resistance of trapped beasts. Compared with the gains, the losses were insignificant.

Thousands of people who fled were hunted mercilessly. They tried to escape to the camp where they arrived, but when they arrived, they found that the wooden door had been opened.

Originally, the fugitives from the Frankish army could rely on the wooden fort built in the forest to try to hold on for a while. However, King Ludwig was frightened. He took the last more than a hundred cavalry and fled along the Roman road in a hurry, leaving the fort. It passed by everywhere, leaving the small group of non-combatants and frostbitten soldiers who stayed behind unaware of what was happening.

But the king is indeed running, and the shouts of killing are still loud in the distance. People saw that the cavalry behind the king were not carriers of three flags: Charlemagne's three lions, the blue cross, and the blue fleur-de-lis.

The cavalry that gathered three flags were undoubtedly the king's own men!

The King's Company retreated without much greeting, thanks to the well-meaning cavalry accompanying them who kept shouting in Frankish: "The Normans are coming! You run away!"

Panic broke out with Ludwig's escape, and the small group of various people who stayed in the three fortresses were fleeing.

In an instant, those Frankish civilians whose families were still under the control of the Normans were forced to flee southward with heartache, because they and the army convinced that the king's conquest and suppression of the rebellion in the north had been defeated.

The three fortresses in the forest were all built on the basis of the original Frankish villages. They were transformed into fortresses to help nearly 20,000 French troops survive the cold snap, but now they are still abandoned.

Then the broken troops from the front line ran over, and what they saw was an empty city. The wooden door was open, and the fortress was deserted. When they entered the fortress in a hurry, they were overtaken by the Saxon pursuers before they could close the wooden door.

The killing was carried out in the fortress. When night fell, the Saxon pursuers had completed all pursuit except those who escaped into the snow under the heather forest.

They avenged their humiliation in this decisive battle and directly occupied the Frankish army's barracks, seizing all the food, cloth, cooking utensils and other materials that Ludwig was unable to take away.

Look, a bonfire is starting to be lit in the camp. It is the Saxon victor who is boiling snow and water to boil wheat and eat it under the night!

As night falls, it's time for a truce! The enemy who finally escaped into the woodland did not need to pursue them with all their strength, because no one knew the dangers of this heather forest better than the Saxons. The cold at night will kill those soldiers who are in a hurry and have no supplies. They will either freeze to death or be killed by forest wolves.

The decisive battle was over, and the bright moon was shining brightly in the sky. It was fair to say that the visibility was pretty good tonight.

The ice of the Elbe River remained still, and the blood of the war dead turned into a large smelly "soup". It first made the battlefield steaming, and then began the freezing process.

Now, many corpses have been adhered to the ice, and cleaning up the corpses and cleaning the battlefield is no longer the first thing to do.

After a decisive battle, the coalition forces could be said to have annihilated the entire East Frankish army of Ludwig. There are silver-white objects shining under the moonlight everywhere. These are the armors and swords of the dead French soldiers.

Weapons were collected as much as possible, and taking off the armor of the deceased was no longer something that could be done tonight.

The Saxon Army in the coalition actually suffered greater losses, and now most of the pursuers are them. The entire army has become extremely loose. Even if Liudov wants to gather the army, it is impossible, and everything can only be done during the day.

The losses of the Ross-Danish coalition were much less, or in other words, appropriate tactics naturally greatly reduced the casualties.

Almost all of the casualties came from the initial wave of cavalry charge, followed by the initial stage of the subsequent infantry array battle.

As the battle turned into a "merciless meat grinder" with spears and halberds, it became difficult for the Rus-Danish coalition to sustain further casualties.

However, after some rough statistics, the casualties of the Ross-Danish coalition still amounted to as many as 400 people. Fortunately, only over a hundred people died in battle due to various reasons, and many of them were Danish friendly soldiers who lacked the protection of armor.

The injured were almost all injured with flesh cuts on their arms and shoulders. They could be debrided with boiling water and some spirits diluted into disinfectant, and then the wounds could be sutured with linen.

Whether the injured person can recover or not depends on the miracle.

The soldiers were so tired that many of them lay on the ice and panted for a rest, and then returned to the city of Hamburg with the loot they found.

There were bonfires visible to the naked eye everywhere. After the victory, Hamburg was bustling with people. Tens of thousands of women and children cooked wheat for the victorious army to reward the victors.

They won the defense battle. Although Ludwig's body was still not found, the Saxons knew that the Franks would have to think twice before attacking the north again.

Rurik led some soldiers back to the city of Hamburg. He sat on the bank of the snowy river and was busy eating boiled wheat.

After a while, Liudov, who had half his face tied up with white linen cloth and most of his beard shaved off, finally found the long-lost King Rurik.

However, a kind of Norman ruthless man suddenly sat here.

Rurik, King of Rus, Ragnar, King of Denmark, and Biyonni, King of Viking York. These are the "Three Barbarian Kings of the North", and they humiliated Frank today.

Liudov is not alone here. As an observer, the Northumbrian King "Broken Arm" Eynred is by his side. The battle is over. Eynred, who has witnessed the horrific scene, has to fight with Liudolf. Talk more.

Now, a few people were together again. Cong Ke didn't feel any embarrassment, but just a feeling that the nobles were relieved of their burden after victory.

"Liudov! You have simply changed your face! It seems that you almost died in battle before!" Rurik looked up.

"Yes. My face was torn and now it's being stitched up. Maybe you'll give me the nickname Scarface in the future. I hope your antiseptic is effective, or I'll be knighted before the fever takes my life. Leave it to my son Bruno."

"Why do you have to say such depressing words? My potion is very effective. In other words, you can always believe in strong liquor."

Liu Duofu let out a sigh of relief as if he was relieved of his burden. He felt that even if he died in battle today, he would have no regrets in this life.

They gathered together to warm themselves by the fire and chat, discussing the fierce battle during the day.

The aroma of barbecue soon filled the air. It was the soldiers butchering the enemy's horses that had been killed in battle. The large amount of blood in the horse meat made the meat smell extremely fishy. The tired and hungry soldiers just wanted to eat meat and wheat.

After a while, Rurik was already holding his de facto eldest son Reglaf in his arms. Although this boy did not make any gains on the front line, he always advanced on the front line against the army and participated in the follow-up killing blows. Combat.

When a young wolf tastes blood for the first time, everything changes.

Regraf finally had the eyes of a wolf, and he completed the first close-range kill of an enemy in his life. This was something incomparable to previous archery kills where the result was difficult to determine.

The Kingdom of Mercia that Reglaf must inherit in the future will be a direct neighbor of the Viking Kingdom of York. King Biyoni is here. He likes this boy and appreciates that this boy has completed the killing before he is even twelve years old. The enemy's feat. This would be a character, and according to Viking tradition, this boy was also his unrelated nephew.

To discuss where to go in the future, this is a big proposition, and it cannot be discussed clearly by a group of high-ranking nobles sitting on the bank of a frozen river in a few words.

The operation of cleaning up the battlefield is still going on on a small scale under night. The northern saint Esquier and his students have continued to collect the bodies of the dead in the name of the "All Northern Diocese", despite the severe cold. Eskil felt that this was his moral obligation, even if the deceased was a Frankish warrior from far away Bavaria.

So, the Finnish flag team of Javlo, which was carrying a large amount of trophies and making jingling noises as they walked, walked majestically north around the concentration of corpses on the battlefield with a huge shining cross mounted on a wooden cart. Skier saw.

"Is that still a cross made of gold? No! Are they here too?!"

Esquier felt that there was an old friend of his here. Even if each other had different understandings of faith, after all, everyone was a servant of God and the level was the same.

"Lord! We are all guilty." He hurriedly crossed himself on his chest, led a group of priests and rushed towards the marching longbowmen, and kept shouting "Count of Finland, stay here".

As expected, Jevro stayed. He could tell that the speaker was the old man Eskil, and his heart suddenly moved. He took this opportunity to ask him what the things he had captured were.

Eskil nearly slipped many times and finally stood under the huge gilded cross. He ignored Jevro's questions for the time being and jumped on the wooden cart to touch the huge gold object.

"It can't be wrong. It must be the cross in Cologne."

His soliloquy was immediately overheard by a dejected guy, and suddenly someone among the prisoners spoke up: "Priest? Is this a priest? Who are you?!"

The words were spoken in Latin. Esquier was clever and stood on the wooden cart to reveal his home: "Who are you! Are you a priest from Cologne? I am the Archbishop of the North, Saint Esquier."

"Ah! It's you!"

In an instant, the unlucky guy who was tied up could no longer maintain his control. He broke free and yelled sadly: "I am Archbishop Hardbold of Cologne! Are you Eskil?! Thank God! Come out of the barbarism. Deliver us from human hands!"

The scene was very embarrassing for a time, and Eski suddenly fell into speechlessness and conflict.

He jumped off the wooden cart and hurriedly told Jevro, who was obviously unaware of the situation, the big news: "You actually captured the Archbishop of Cologne. This is... a big deal."

"A very noble person? I have indeed made great achievements."

"It is indeed very noble. The Archbishop of Cologne and I are of noble rank, and they are also richer. Untie these priests quickly and give them to Rurik. Don't let them die or be injured."

In fact, Yevluo never felt that the old man Eskil was very noble, and he was also very unfamiliar with the geographical term "Cologne", but "they are very rich" Yevluo listened.

It was impossible to unbind, and only God knew whether they would flee foolishly, or try to speed up the process and hand over the noble prisoners to Rurik, just in time to use a group of noble people to gain some benefits for the Finnish army.