They seemed to have a hatred for everything. They smashed the wooden chairs in the monastery with their big axes, and hacked at the stone walls everywhere. It seemed that they could find the mezzanine and fish out the gold.
Those who were the first to rush into the monastery got more or less some gold and silver, but most of them still did not hunt what they hoped for.
Most of the Viking warriors had to plunder the corpses and take away boots and belts. Even the black robes and stoles of the priests were plucked off, and the bodies discarded.
More than a hundred people searched everywhere. They reached the southeastern end of the monastery and saw some stone tablets standing here. They took it for granted that this was a tomb.
"Brothers, there must be gold and silver buried in the tomb, let's dig it!"
Someone started to raise their heads, and people from all walks of life began to knock down the stone tablets, using the shovels they found, and even their hands. Start digging.
However, all they found were broken wooden coffins and piles of bones.
They found a silver ring and a cross from the finger bones of the skeleton.
They even destroyed the tomb of Saint Cuthbert, Bishop of St. Cuthbert, just like the monastery that he personally selected and built on the site, which was wantonly destroyed by barbarians from the sea.
Even those who did not get enough wealth looked at the smiling faces of the guys who got the gold and silver, and with envy and jealousy, they directed their hatred towards the monastery itself.
Finally someone started setting fires!
The so-called holy water is more appropriately said to be holy oil. It is actually an essential oil extracted from roses. This holy water has a strong floral scent, and the floral scent is believed to have the power to cleanse away dirt. The monastery stores a lot of this rose essential oil, which is also used as a medicine, so the monastery is also known as the "Place of Healing".
But these holy oils have become arson agents.
Rurik and his men found some parchments in the confusion except the Gospel.
The book, or record book, is actually written in Latinized ancient Saxon. It is a record book of the monastery's events and also contains details of the monastery's rules and regulations.
Another batch of letters was also seized.
The chaos in the monastery forced Rurik to evacuate. Only ten books and documents he needed were taken outdoors.
He held a piece of parchment in both hands and couldn't help but shake his head as he looked at the densely packed text.
"What does it say? Paul."
"It's a letter from the king, a compliment to the monastery, and..."
Suddenly, Paul His eyes widened and he hurriedly said, "Sir! It's..."
"What on earth is it?!"
"It's a letter from the king. The king is going to send you a letter on the 15th of this month. Come to mass."
"Is it a grand festival?" Rurik asked.
"The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a big festival."
"It's so wonderful." Rurik hurriedly collected the letter, looked at the already smoking monastery, and shook his head. Beginning, "It seems that the king is going to be disappointed. But, I can also attack him. "
"Ah! My lord...you. This is not good. "
"What's wrong? Do you think you are a sinner by doing things for me? "
"This..." Paul's hesitation explained everything.
Rurik said bluntly, "In Northumbria, you are just a lowly serf. . If you and those nobles are not both the Lamb of the Lord, how can they be noble? Are you mean? I won't take away your faith. I have to take these holy books back and keep them well. Don’t you still understand your current situation? "
Paul heard enough hints and said silently, "The king will definitely come with the elite army of the kingdom. "
"Elite! What I fight is the elite. This is truly glorious. ”
Paul really doesn’t know how to evaluate this young man. He is rational, wise, and knows the value of the holy book, but he is also crazier than those barbarians.
Attack the king? How arrogant is this? . He knew that he had no retreat...
Lindisfarne Abbey still had a lot of wooden structures, and the smoke from its wonderful spire became more and more serious, and finally the red flames filled the sky.
With all kinds of things they grabbed, the Viking army hurriedly fled the monastery. As for the dead, they were naturally buried in the monastery.
People stepped on the road that was about to be submerged by the high tide, and everyone retreated to the coast. , and retreated to the camp next to the ship's mooring.
Only a dozen people in the army sprained their arms and bruised their skin in the chaos. They retreated with almost no casualties.
Everywhere on the beach. It's the people who are sitting, some are happy and some are upset.
After all, this is really a robbery based on ability, and those who seize the opportunity will naturally get the most. After receiving a lot of Frankish silver coins, since the Floki brothers were also involved, he had to distribute some to the chief family and Biyongni according to the agreement.
The heads of various families gathered together to communicate with each other today. Capture.
Some people did complain about showing off. The excited Biyongni boasted of his great glory. He patted his chest and boasted of capturing and killing a big shot. He also made fun of Rurik's persistence in parchments. .
“My brother Rurik says those written things are the most precious! The Russians are indeed a little different from us, and perhaps that is indeed very precious. ”
After that, everyone laughed.
Laughing, those who did not get rich continued to shout, “I want to continue fighting!” I want to go south and continue exploring. "
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Someone immediately echoed, "That prisoner of Lord Rurik , doesn’t it mean there is Bamburgh in the south? That's a city. We can fight it and everyone can get rich again. ”
When they hear about the opportunity to make a fortune, everyone ignores that their ships may no longer be able to carry more treasures. People are greedy, who would dislike what they have obtained?Too much treasure?
People became interested and stared at Rurik.
"You don't laugh at me anymore? Do you want to listen to my opinion again?" Rurik scolded deliberately.
"I'm sorry, brother." Biyongni asked, "What do you think if we attack that Bamberg."
"Not so much. Since you choose war. Everyone. ! I also like war. Now I learned something big. "
Rurik said with a sullen face: "You are busy grabbing gold and silver. A captured letter. I learned that the king himself was coming to the monastery for a festival."
"Is it a sacrifice?" Biyongni immediately became alert.
"Exactly. So, we can intercept and kill them. We may fight their strongest army and get a lot of treasures."
Suddenly someone clapped their chests: "Why are you still hesitating? My people haven't grabbed many treasures. I won't go back until I get rich!"
"Then fight! Fight them openly! Odin hopes so, this is ours Destiny." Biyongni's shouting resonated with everyone, and Rurik said nothing.
Although he doesn’t know what he will encounter, Rurik estimates that the Kingdom of Northumbria can be forcibly reduced to a Danfa area. Coupled with the recent war, the preparation and national strength of this kingdom must be Fela is unbearable.
The strongest army? The king's bodyguard?
Then set up a battle line on the beach and have a decisive battle with the king's army!
Although the people under his command are not elite Russian troops, they are still warriors carefully selected by the Balmok people.
Because of the seizures in the victory, these people's personal weapons and equipment, which were once very rudimentary, have been greatly improved.
The King of Northumbria will definitely come. Rurik vaguely remembered that it was the legendary king here who killed Ragnar, which triggered a fierce attack by the Viking army. Is that king's name Ella?
No, Ella is probably still a young man or even a teenager.
Rik doesn’t care what the king’s surname is, nor does the other warriors. Maybe it was not good to be too relaxed, but none of them were Rus. Rurik knew that he could only mobilize those family leaders and force ordinary soldiers to do something, which was really inappropriate.
People began to build their own camps, and a sudden rain made the world feel cold.
The rain extinguished the fire in the monastery, and the messy courtyard was intimidating. The Vikings had to hide in the occupied old military camp, huddled in wooden houses and waited for the weather to clear.
The rain continued for two days and the land was still muddy. It was not enough for people to just eat wheat. They began to fish in boats and went hunting in the woods with captured bows and arrows.
The fifteenth day is getting closer and closer, and it seems that the threat of war is approaching.
They are not preparing for battle, so Rurik can slack off.
Because of in-laws and personal relationships,Rurik could mobilize a total of three hundred men from Biyoni and Geiger.
Wars should not be group fights based on individual use of force. Since a large number of spearheads were captured, Rurik simply trained this group of people to form a long-haired team.
New wooden poles were tied to the spear heads, and three hundred people formed a spear team. The team was training, and Rurik sent Yevro to simply train the group in two movements, which were nothing more than walking in a group with spears, and following orders to point the spearhead at the outside.
He knew that Bruce of Scotland, with a group of barefoot farmers and a large number of so-called spears made of just sharpened oak wood, defeated the English mail cavalry on a suitable battlefield.
Compared to those farmers, these Balmoks have a clear sense of teamwork. Moving the shield wall is a specialty, but if you switch to a spear, it will also be a spear push.
What is different from the emergency training here is that the other Vikings are either lazily watching the show or hunting and fishing everywhere.
Some people even ran very far away in an attempt to find wild boars and kill them in groups. As a result, they encountered Northumbria's mounted scouts!
In the encounter on the forest trail, only two scouts were besieged, one was killed and the other was captured.
The neatly dressed soldiers immediately stripped off their equipment, and after being beaten again, they were taken away barefoot and undressed by the Vikings like prey.
As for the two rare riding horses, they were taken away.
The prisoners were escorted to Rurik. This situation caused the entire camp to explode.
Many people believe that war is about to happen and imagine that a large army is coming to kill them. They were not afraid at all. Instead, they felt that they were a group of fools who were sending gold and silver to be slaughtered.
Rurik has a "translator" Paul beside him. After a few days of contact, this Paul has been forced to learn some Norse vocabulary. This is not difficult because Old Saxon and Norse have so many things in common.
When he learned that he was killed and roasted by the guys on horseback, Rurik felt speechless and didn't want to ask more about it.
He directly interrogated the captives surrounded by many family leaders. This trembling man had no integrity at all and directly confessed the important news.
The so-called King Aynred of Northumbria will come to the monastery in person to participate in the festival. The king is very particular about grandeur when he travels. In addition to a group of capable guards, he also has to bring a group of treasures and attendants with him.
The family leaders were overjoyed, but Rurik had to be particularly vigilant.
Some people shouted: "Haha, their king has arrived in Bamburgh. We killed this most noble man to show Odin our strength."
"Yes! This is It's the greatest honor."
"I can't wait, I want to kill a hundred enemies."
Some even said: "It's a waste of energy for us to stay here. , we row to capture Bamburg and gain wealth by killing them.”
But some leaders are more cautious, because they don’t want to suffer too much loss, and if they can fight with more, they will naturally insist on it!Do this.
The family leader hoped that Biyongni, who had the largest number of troops, would come up with one, and Biyongni and Geiger said that Rurik was the master in this area.
The captives were pulled down, and they were deemed to have lost their use value and were killed directly.
After all, Rurik has experience in commanding wars, and the Balmoks believe this is not bragging.
He stood up and faced everyone: "You have all heard that they have cavalry! I advise you to be more vigilant. Fortunately, I am also prepared."
However, Liuli Ke's words are like playing the harp to a cow, because those who don't know the power of cavalry at all.
Of course, Rurik can't say that he has rich experience in this regard. He has never fought against the cavalry personally, and all his knowledge of the cavalry can only be described as talk on paper. It would also be effective to deal with the infantry's spear array by paying more cavalry, he hoped so.
Rurik continued to shout, "Let's not talk about the cavalry. Their king has been waiting for us to occupy the monastery, which is the report of the previous escapees."
This statement attracted some attention. People were dismissive and said sarcastically, "Are we afraid of cowards? Why? Even if they gather people, I will fight them here and chop off a hundred heads."
People again There was talk and laughter, and optimism permeated the entire camp.
This is simply a danger signal, but what is the enemy’s specific strength and armament? Rurik couldn't quite believe what the prisoner said.
After all, it was just as the prisoner said, there were two thousand people. This kind of force was nothing.
The Kingdom of Northumbria quickly assembled a regular infantry of two thousand men. Rurik did not believe this. Britain in this era was just a group of peasants led by lords and capable retainers to fight, and the battlefield would be filled with sickles, dung and forks. Only a few cities are guarded by standing troops with acceptable equipment. However, these city defenders have proven their weakness with poor combat.
The only thing Rurik was wary of was the cavalry. Thinking about it carefully, there must not be many cavalry in the kingdom.
As long as we deal with the cavalry properly, forget about the farmers and the standing soldiers who are better than the farmers.
Reason told Rurik that he should not take it lightly, but the more he thought about it, the more he looked down on the enemy.
Who will win between a thousand strong Viking men who take pride in killing their enemies versus two thousand armed farmers with farm tools?
They were full of confidence, Rurik sat down again, "We will wait. The enemy may have two thousand people, or even more."
"Then kill them all Kill, one of us can kill ten of them," one person yelled confidently.
Byongni nodded, "Indeed, we still have some powerful weapons. We may have killed two thousand enemies in Edinburgh and here, and our losses so far are less than a hundred. This time Let’s prepare again and kill another two thousand of them with very little loss.”
Listening to what Biyongni said, it’s so easy to kill the enemy. Everyone thought so, and Rurik could only agree.
After learning the basic intelligence of the enemy, Rurik and the people he could directly mobilize began to actively arrange the battlefield.
The people of Geiger and Biyoni are the most stable, and Rurik persuaded the one hundred fishermen in Shetland, saying, "You just want to get rich and don't want to fight head-on. You should hold bows and arrows." Stand behind our lines and shoot arrows for cover when necessary. I will give each of you a silver coin after the war, and you will be treated peacefully and kindly by us Russians. You will also be qualified to clean up the battlefield after the war."
The people of Delan do cherish their lives. If they really want to be the warriors of Bergen, they will not immigrate to the islands. They are indeed afraid of direct combat, so it is a good thing to become an archer.
Rurik wanted to recreate the decisive battle on Gotland, but the scale of the battle was greatly reduced.
He began to pile up platforms with wood on the flat land near the sea, and then piled them up to make a ramp. Ten torsion slingshots were densely placed on five platforms with a height of only about one meter. Together with their own height, they were just over The head of the warrior in front.
As a flexible weapon, the trebuchet can move at will by pulling on the rope.
Ten trebuchets, ten slingshots, and nearly eighty crossbowmen. The three hundred people holding spears are the core of the battle. When necessary, they throw away their spears and carry shields behind them, Instantly he became the classic Viking sword and shield bearer.
All the family leaders can clearly see that Rurik of Rus does have the means, and the army has been trained to be more organized.
Is this really the case? The approaching enemy is nothing more than a farmer coming to the rescue. Killing the peasants can only be the glory of victory. Only by killing the king's guards and stealing the king's baggage vehicles can huge wealth be obtained.
Rurik and the others decided to wait for work, so the other brothers were the first to attack and join in the plunder. He always had a hunch that his conquests should not always go so smoothly. Those family leaders and their subordinates who went their own way and did not obey orders might suffer in future battles.