The defeated soldiers who fled from the military camp outside Lindisfarne Abbey ran frantically along the dirt road in the forest towards Bamburgh.
The rain during this period gave them a chill.
When these fifty or sixty people arrived at the Bamburgh pass in ragged clothes, wet bodies, and legs covered with black mud, the soldiers managing the pass thought they were a group of farmers trying to enter the city. .
The soldiers began to interrogate, and the fleeing army immediately reported their identities and the tragedy of the monastery being raided.
They were released into the city, and the terrible news immediately spread.
Their appearance was like a plague coming to Albert, Earl of Bamberg and the priests.
"Is it the Picts?" After learning the news, the Earl immediately held a meeting in his mansion.
The garrison commanders from the entire city gathered together, and the bishop who attended the meeting changed his usual calmness and became angry and eager.
The centurion who escaped back washed his face and continued to report: "I don't know if he is a Pict or not."
"What do you know? !” The count stabbed the meat-cutting dagger into the table and continued to curse, “You are the scum of the kingdom. You led the people to evacuate and watched the monastery being attacked by them.”
He hurriedly explained: "Sir, there are at least a thousand of them, and they are as crazy as devils emerging from hell. Many people died in battle, but the enemy was almost unscathed."
Everyone listened to these brief words. You have to be cautious.
"You..." The count held his chin. He couldn't believe this person's words and continued to ask, "Are you a Pict? Or someone else?"
"Definitely. "They are Picts." Bishop Edmund vowed, "Those people refused our leadership, so they attacked the monastery. Just like what happened before, those barbarians just pretended to join us." Our faith."
"Go tell the king about this." The Earl bared his teeth, "Now, those Picts may have attacked the Holy Land."
Perhaps they really were Picts? The centurion who fled back never thought so.
"My lord, I saw they were coming across the sea, and they had many ships. I doubt it."
"What do you suspect?" the count pressed.
"Just like the monastery was attacked decades ago. It was not the Picts who attacked us, but the barbarians from the sea."
"Those people? Really? Is it them?" This statement was like a thunderbolt, and the count suddenly became excited and then frightened.
Bishop Edmund was also frightened, "Just a few years ago, Wessex and Kent were attacked by those sea barbarians. They attacked the monastery, killed the priests, destroyed the holy tomb and insulted the holy relics. Take away a lot of gold and silver. They are the group of pirates who occupied Flanders!”
“Master Bishop, you mean that the legendary pirates are targeting us?”
"The incident decades ago is not a legend." Bishop Edmund stamped his feet and said sternly. "About ten years ago, a group of pirates sacked Lindisfarne. This time, only the Picts or those Only sea robbers can do that.”
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The count dug into his fist, and big beads of sweat kept falling.
"It just so happens that at this time, the king is coming to participate in the festival. Now I want to tell him that the holy place of the monastery has been occupied and even destroyed by the enemy." He smashed the table in extreme anger and stared at all the people with his sharp eyes. Officer, "I will lead you to completely eliminate those villains. Do you have confidence."
Without exception, all the centurions beat their chests for the attack on the monastery. Proving their bravery, they all accused the fleeing officers of being traitors and cowards who did not deserve to live. They fully support the counterattack and try their best to prove their strength, such as bragging about their achievements in the civil war more than ten years ago.
But the Earl's head has not yet been coaxed into paste by this group of obviously bragging men. He himself is the cousin of King Eynred and an officer in the civil war.
He is not a pampered person, but a strong man who rides a horse and fights. At least his camp was winning the civil war, and then used military means to suppress the centrifugal domestic nobility, which also ensured that the two small countries continued to exist as a unified kingdom of Northumbria.
But the stability of the kingdom is based on the stability of military power. A thousand barbarian pirates landed and destroyed it, which seems to be very embarrassingly powerful!
The count already had a countermeasure. He leaned down at the desk and continued, "We must organize soldiers and horses to kill them completely. There is no room for compromise. I will immediately gather the soldiers, organize the men in the city, and organize the farmers in the village. . This is a battle to defend justice and light. I want to wait for the king to arrive and form a strong army to attack."
Earl Albert is also a thick black man, because his cousin King Aenred. He can be described as a "warrior king". If he rashly sends out troops, regardless of victory or defeat, he will be competing with his cousin for credit.
Trespassing will make the king jealous, and the kingdom may fall into civil war.
He suddenly called loudly: "Glory belongs to the king, let us hurry up and prepare for war."
Edmund Pigfoot whispered tragically, "This will be the bloody Assumption Day of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. "
"There is no way. Those pirates are like Satan's demons. If we can't kill them, the whole kingdom will fall into hell. Let the king personally conquer and let the other countries see our strength. !”
“Aye!” The centurions present shouted with great confidence.
It was pity that the centurion who led the escape was imprisoned. This man could not escape the charge of being a coward and a traitor. As for who can punish him, it is naturally the king.
......
The kingdom of Northumbria, which seems to be very large in Britain, has just ended its long-termHundreds of years of chaos. After King Erdwulf was expelled by a coalition of domestic nobles and churches in 806, the nobles immediately began a large-scale civil war against the power of the kingdom. However, Erdwulf, whose family was in exile, was restored in 808 with the intervention of Charlemagne of the Franks.
He received military assistance from the Franks, a cavalry force trained by the European Franks, who helped him suppress those opponents.
But how does this king have Charlemagne’s skills?
He made an alliance with the surrendered nobles and gave the priests more power in order to gain support. For those determined opponents, Prince Eynred was ordered to throw an army and conquer.
It was because of this achievement that when Erdwulf died of illness, Eynred was immediately crowned king. At this point, 110 years have passed since the outbreak of civil strife, and the people have finally enjoyed a rare relative peace, but the world has never been peaceful.
In the north of the kingdom are the Picts, and in the south are the kingdoms of Mercia and Kent. News about barbarian invasions is also spreading.
King Aenred is well aware of the many threats facing his kingdom, and he has no illusions of being immune to the chaos.
However, he never dreamed that the most important monastery in the kingdom, the place where he was crowned, would be occupied by a group of barbarians!
The king, some of his family members, his personal guards, and more than 500 people arrived in Bamburgh from York. When he arrived, the tragic news had spread throughout the city.
That was not all. People who fled to the south from Edinburgh on the northern border claimed that Edinburgh had been destroyed by seafaring barbarians, while another group of barbarians from the Pictish Kingdom randomly began to try to invade.
When the king came to Bamburgh, his cousin Earl Albert immediately gave up his mansion.
However, these two terrible news were like a bolt from the blue, which simply chopped the king's head.
He simply did not think in his rage, and faced all the officers present, even the subordinate centurions, with indignation.
"Decades ago, barbarians from the sea attacked the monastery. We rebuilt it and it is still being attacked today! I am afraid it was also this group of people who attacked Edinburgh, and our defenders were actually defeated. They Is it the devil? Did our ever-victorious army become useless because we have lived in peace for too long? You are just a bunch of trash! Our holy land was occupied by barbarians, and at least a thousand of them destroyed it! The soldiers are dead, but they are still victorious!"
All the officers hung their heads, even those who followed the king, did not dare to speak out against it.
Earl Albert tensed up and said bluntly: "King, those enemies... are very strong. There are at least a thousand of them, and everyone is very good at fighting. They also have some special weapons. We... "
"Shut up! They are all excuses. The soldiers are not religious enough. Do you think I am a fool? How many men in the military camp are hanging out with captive women?The strong men have turned into fools. They only know how to enjoy themselves and think that there will be no war if we sign an alliance with our neighboring countries. Y'all don't make excuses, cheer up! ”
It is foolish to belittle his men too much. King Eynred needs these people to realize that they have been humiliated by the enemy and must fight to the death to restore their honor.
Earl Albert continued to speak bluntly: "The soldiers who escaped, especially a centurion, told some very detailed information. "
"What? And the cowards who escaped? ”
“Exactly. "
"Why not hanged? "The king was furious and stared at his Earl cousin with hawk-like eyes.
"This..." The centurion is in my cell and needs your judgment. "
"Okay! Okay..." The king's heroic figure leaned back slightly, looking at the people present almost from chin level.
He was quiet for a while, and then asked his cousin: "Except for the centurion, the rest of the soldiers who escaped back Woolen cloth? "
"Now they are all included in my army. ”
“That’s not possible. Brother, letting these cowards infiltrate the army is not a good thing for us. "
The count was surprised: "Are those soldiers going to be hanged too? IMHO, they are just lowly people. They wouldn't dare run away if the officers didn't. "
"No, no, no, we should follow the Frankish approach on this matter. You know, I had some experience in the Franks, and I even met Charlemagne himself. Frank has a strong army, and I think their strength lies in their strict military management. How can we be strict? Kill the cowards in the army to scare the rest, and all soldiers should know that those who run away will be killed, but those who fight will be rewarded. ”
Although this set of rewards and punishments is very simple and straightforward, can it really be implemented in specific situations?
As a king, Eynred thinks very highly of himself, at least in Northen. This is the case in Bria.
He firmly believed that the Frankish army was strong, but Charlemagne's army was becoming more and more decadent in the hands of his heirs who were busy fighting among themselves. He did not know that Frank's " "Louis the German" had a group of hundreds of "blond mercenaries" under his command, whose leader was Harald Clark, the former Danish leader who was expelled in 826.
The once-all-powerful Frankish army It has declined, and even Eynred himself is about to enter middle age.
It has been sixteen years since he became king. The kingdom cannot be said to be peaceful for a long time under his governance, at least not like Mai. There are no longer military conflicts in West Asia, and the friction with the Picts in the north is also at a very low level.
He calmed down for a while and came up with a way: "Then follow Caesar's rules. Brothers, gather the troops and the people of Bamburg. I want to show everyone the fate of those who betray their duties. ”
What are “Caesar’s rules”? It’s the eleventh day.
The next day, it was humid and sunnyOn a bright morning, before the dew on the grass has evaporated, some wooden poles have been erected in Bamburgh's rather muddy town square.
It was a simple gallows, and as many as two thousand people came to watch this horrific punishment.
The enemy with shocking strength occupied the monastery. If the king did not take measures, the barbarians might attack Bamburgh next. News of the attack on Edinburgh has spread among the people, and everyone is still in danger.
The king wears a gilded silver crown and an orange cloak. He was riding a horse, its mane beautifully braided.
Eynred was arrogant, pointing his sword directly at a total of seven prisoners wearing sacks on their heads and lanyards around their necks.
"My subjects! Look at it! These are the soldiers who were ordered to guard Lindisfarne, but they did not resist the barbarians from the sea, abandoned their beliefs and became cowards. Are they Falling into hell is God's business. My mission is to let these cowards and traitors meet God."
The people and soldiers held their breath, but in fact everyone was holding back a breath of evil.
At this moment, no one feels that their king resembles a tyrant. Even they urgently need a decisive king at this moment to lead people to regain their lost treasures.
"Execution!"
The executioner kicked the stool on which the prisoners were standing. After a struggle, all the prisoners died.
Eynred remained calm, while his wife and young son Ella witnessed all this from a distance.
After all, it was a place of execution for murder, and the priests all avoided it. They were still busy with arrangements for the Assumption Mass, but everyone had already entertained the most terrifying idea that the Holy Land had been destroyed by the enemy, just as it had happened forty years before.
No matter what, you must go to Mass when the date comes. If Lindisfarne Abbey is not available, then do it at the monastery in Bamburgh City.
After the death of the prisoner, the body was hanging like salted fish. The soldiers who saw this scene were thinking that if they were not brave enough in the future battle, this would be the same fate.
Those soldiers who escaped but did not win the lottery due to good luck are not happy at all now, because they know best how powerful the enemy is.
But others were enveloped in optimism and immersed in the cheering scenes. Most people forgot the horror of war.
Because the entire men in Bamburgh City were mobilized, some male villagers around them were also captured.
The king's order is absolute. Eynred issued an edict in Bamburgh, recruiting men between the ages of fifteen and fifty to assemble in Bamburgh.
The local Bishop Edmund and the priests who accompanied the king also jointly issued a proclamation. The so-called pious people armed themselves to expel the barbarians from the Holy Land of Lindisfarne, no matter what the outcome was for those involved. , the original sin can be forgiven.
Even so, the king did not want to recruit a powerful army.
The century-old chaos in Northumbria has not really ended even twenty years ago. The country only has a population of more than 100,000, and it is mainly concentrated in the royal city of York.
Is it necessary to mobilize elite troops from the southern border, which is a key area of control? If this is really done, who can guarantee that Mercia will not seize the opportunity to attack immediately? A few years ago, Mercia forced the king of Kent to become Mercia's vassal.
Mobilizing the garrison troops of the royal city of York to go north takes a lot of time, and the battle drags on. If the enemy has escaped, he will make a big fight but fail, and the result will naturally be a waste of people and money. What's more, if the group of sailing barbarians attacked another target by sea, the result would only be worse.
Even though Northumbria trained a cavalry force with only a few hundred horsemen, it did not have any sailing troops.
There is no think tank around the king, or there is no civilian role as an adviser at all.
There is no civil bureaucracy of any kind in Northumbria. The chiefs responsible for work in various places are all military nobles.
It is really not appropriate for Aynred to act on his own initiative. The king does not get any advisers, and he can only do the leading military and national affairs himself. However, he is currently in charge of the territory that his cousin is responsible for, and his position as earl was conferred by his deceased father. The previous king successfully restored Northumbria with the support of Frank, so the domestic administrative model also began to try to learn from Frank.
Is this the right thing to do?
King Aynred, after two days of preparations, he quickly assembled a force that was almost entirely composed of soldiers and civilians from the Earl of Bamburgh. The force consisted of just over 2,000 soldiers. The "army" of people.
The strength of this army is indeed large, and the composition of the soldiers during this period is really diverse. There were all kinds of people, young and old, and a large number of farmers and craftsmen had no intention of fighting. However, when they learned that they would be executed if they did not fight, they could only bring their own farm tools or even a sharpened stick to join the army. They had to take care of their own food and march almost with bare feet.
Only more than 800 of them are real soldiers of the kingdom. They wear real leather boots. Although the kingdom does not have a consistent military uniform style, orange linen dyed by multiple techniques constitutes the uniform of regular soldiers. Main color.
In addition to this "Earl of Bamburgh's Army", King Aynred also brought out his own accompanying troops.
Two hundred sword and shield bearers all wearing chain mail, and one hundred and fifty armored "heavy cavalry".
In this way, an army with a total strength of 2,400 people was born. Although the king did not pay much attention to those peasant soldiers, there were more than 1,000 regular kingdom soldiers.
Is the enemy brave? Is there anyone more brave than heavy cavalry in this world?
Cavalry is the foundation of the king's confidence, but there has been no progress on the mounted scouts sent out in the past three days. It seems that those people are lost?
Eynred was immersed in the fantasy of a bloody war for ten yearsSince he suddenly assembled such a large army, he felt that he was only one step away from victory.
The only thing left to do is to march the army along the dirt road leading to the monastery. It is best for the enemy to stay there like a fool, so that their glorious victory can be well-deserved. Through victory, the prestige of the sea barbarians will be severely undermined for a long time, and other countries will be able to see who is brave.
He has already chosen the day of departure.
As for the Vikings and Rurik, their actions directly conformed to Eynred's fantasy.
Perhaps, this is just a stupid fight. Rurik considered that his men were not Russians, so he tried to carry out some detours and sneak attacks, but he was afraid that this group of Balmoks, who were prone to internal strife, would not be able to do it. Since it is a stupid battle, we must carry out defensive counterattack tactics to the end. Just like the decisive battle on Gotland, this Rurik is very familiar and extremely confident.