The sudden attack caused a large number of the so-called soldiers of Pine Needle Manor to flee for their lives. They ignored their dead and injured companions and started reporting enemy attacks to everyone they met as soon as they arrived at the farm.
These are so good that even women are armed with farm tools or pure wooden sticks.
/p>
"Get out of here!" The naked Vadim casually smashed a wooden cup, which was unable to stop the messenger's alarm at all.
"Sir! The Russians came and killed many people. You...you have to lead everyone to fight them back!"
"Wait?! This is true! !"
Vadim was completely uninterested, and he suddenly woke up: "Fight! We must fight back and organize everyone to defend the farm!"
When a war warning was issued, Vadim hurriedly put on his clothes, picked up his sword and walked out of the house. He summoned his cronies to fight the enemy personally, but found that the entire farm was in chaos.
He had no idea what the enemy's situation was, and the armed men in the entire farm had no way of knowing, but the words of those who escaped were too shocking.
A group of messengers who are good at running were assigned emergency orders. Their task was to move rescue troops along the lake.
The Russians are definitely not weak. Pine Needle Manor is likely to lose in an upright battle. But it will be different if the Slavic forces of the entire Lake Ilmen are gathered.
Vadim saw the cowardice of his troops, and it happened that the appointed "Supreme Coach", Harold the Varyag, came in a hurry with a few brothers.
Harold still didn’t know what had happened. It seemed that Ross’s army was coming, but his instinct told him that the intelligence was wrong.
"What's going on? Where is the enemy?"
To Harold's surprise, Vadim came up and yelled: "Am I a fool to pay for this? I I asked you to train the army, why did my team collapse at the first glance? Now that the Russians are coming, you idiots are running away."
This is like being slapped with a brick.
Harold was choked for words and didn't know what to say. But he felt sorry for himself, so he retorted: "You asked me to lead troops. The people I led before were all Varyags. What did you ask me to bring? Look at your men, take them off You can see the ribs like dry branches, how can such a thin man fight? How dare you force them to fight? Look at yourself, ignoring your pregnant wife. You've lost all face by messing around with a woman."
"You! Are you mocking me?" Vadim had already tightened his grip on the sword.
Brother Harold was not used to this sudden gain of power. Even though many Slavs were present, they all picked up their axes and looked ready to fight.
Vadim is not a wild bull, nor is the current internal strife within our own enemy.Good thing.
He rolled his eyes at Harold: "We are going to repel the Russians. Come together. Your benefits will be indispensable after the war."
A group of people rushed to the so-called battlefield with great momentum. , but where is the enemy?
Pine Needles Manor has a large living area and can accommodate tens of thousands of people. Rumor has it that the Russians have already entered the farm, and soldiers trained in other areas have returned to the farm. They originally planned to fight the enemy in the streets, but after all the trouble, the shouts of killing were loud, and no one knew where the enemy was.
They struggled for a long time but got nothing, and the nervous soldiers gradually relaxed. Some even started to complain that this was a farce of "crying wolf".
As expected, Vadim took his cronies around the farm and found nothing.
Finally, this kid arrived at the horrific crime scene.
More than a thousand armed men gradually gathered here. Seeing the tragic situation of the deceased was shocking, some even knelt down and vomited on the spot.
Sure enough, there was an attack, just like a lone wolf attacking the sheepfold, killing some sheep, eating some meat, and then withdrew. It was only then that the insider reported to him what had happened. Vadim was so angry that he really wanted to take action immediately, lead the clan to attack, and wipe out the White Tree Manor, which had colluded with the Russians, leaving no one alive.
Grund's actions directly ignited the anger of Pine Needle Manor, just like pouring gasoline on a raging fire. However, Vadim is worried about the all-out attack. If he could, he would have taken action long ago. Now he still needs the cooperation of the alliance farmers.
It is unrealistic to gather 10,000 people, but it is feasible to first gather the men and women of your own farm and gather the number of combatants to 5,000. As for those allies, they can send at least three thousand people!
It depends on the situation tonight and how many reinforcements can come.
Vadim hopes to assemble a large army in a short time.
The chaos did not subside. Instead, everyone saw the dead bodies, and the restlessness in Pine Needle Manor became more serious.
A cautious Varangian took advantage of the chaos and fled back to the farm.
Karl was not afraid of the previous battle at all. He was even quite happy to see his hometown people in a foreign land. This guy found the boss, Harold, and his appearance made many old friends quite informed.
Seeing Karl, Harold punched him with good intentions: "I thought you were dead."
"Dead?" Karl said with a smile: "We brothers have always been It’s better to be happy than to die.”
“An adventure?”
“Boss, there are also Danes! I have something important to tell you, it is related to our life and death!"
In an instant, everyone realized the seriousness of the situation.
A group of thirty brothers from Harold gathered in the residence, with the doors and windows sealed, and Carl explained his experience in Enochian language.
At this time, the words shocked everyone.
Who would have thought that the all-powerful LuoThe main force of the Russians came over. Rurik, the leader of the Russians who sank the Red Dragon and killed Harold, the Danish King, came with his own army!
The old leader of Ross, Otto, was unscathed when he was assassinated. His son led the main force to seek revenge. The purpose was to kill all Pine Needle Manor without leaving any trace behind?
Indeed, a war broke out between the Russians and the Gotlanders a few years ago, and the Gotlanders were killed to the point of extinction.
"Brothers, the Danish brothers across the street are giving us some help for the sake of our own clan. They will launch a full-scale attack tomorrow, and we must evacuate at night. I said we should run away with our belongings."
"Where are those women?" someone shouted nervously.
"Yes, we have to take these slaves to the south and sell them."
"There are other belongings, and we have to get some food before we leave."< /p>
......
The subordinates actually started talking about it. Harold, who knew the stakes well, was furious: "I'm fired! Your life is at stake now! You should pack your belongings quickly." The property is ready to be evacuated. Our longboat can carry at most twenty women, and we will pick the twenty most beautiful ones to take away, and execute all the others."
The brothers were all stunned.
"Boss, this is inappropriate! We still make money from this." Someone said.
"When did this happen? The Russians can kill suddenly, and only the Russians can do this kind of thing. If it weren't for us Danes opposite, our brothers would die tomorrow. Just a few women are nothing. , you can't be happy after losing your head!"
Everyone looked at each other and had nothing to say.
They are a group of businessmen, and they are also a group of bandits who kill people and sell goods. Whether they are businessmen or bandits depends only on their own environment. In the face of a powerful enemy, they have no intention of working for Vadim, and they feel that it is foolish to fight against the Russians.
They immediately screened the sixty women under their control, selected twenty young and beautiful ones, and took them all away. As for the remaining forty people, they were taken away one by one and killed one by one. Harold and his gang are very skilled at doing this kind of thing. No one knew that the so-called Varyag mercenaries were quietly killing and preparing to escape after nightfall.
In other words, after the people of the entire Pine Needle Manor were encouraged by Vadim himself, their fear was replaced by anger. Everyone was waiting for reinforcements from the allies to arrive at the farm to launch an attack tomorrow. Even if they don't attack tomorrow, they must attack the traitor White Tree Manor within a few days and kill the local Ross people.
The messengers who notified the enemy of the attack ran to the nearest ally's manor one after another with exhaustion and vomiting blood, and then rushed to the next one.
Ilmen Lake is very large, and it is impossible to notify all the manors in one afternoon. Only five farms were notified before evening. Due to pressure, these farm leaders gathered in their own manors with complicated emotions. The men, carrying a variety of weapons and some dry food, moved to Pine Needle Manor to assemble.
Their ships are all canoes. The Ilmen Slavs have not yet learned the technology of assembling wooden planks to build ships, and they do notHe dared to capture the passing Varyag longships for his own use.
The Slavs were unable to transport soldiers to Pine Needle Manor by ship, so they moved forward on foot. Fortunately, their ability to sew leather boots made the journey not painful.
They advanced through the wasteland beside the river in the afternoon, leaving the straight ridges bordering the fields where wheat seedlings grew wildly. There was no road ahead, and the walking speed of the group of people slowed down.
No one knows how the Pine Needles Manor was attacked, but the entire Novgorod was coerced by Vadim to declare war on the Rus. Due to the violent temper of the Varangros, if Vadim was defeated , everyone will suffer disaster. They have all realized the truth behind the death of lips and teeth, but how useful is it to send two to three hundred people for support?
Only five manors were on the way to the reinforcements, and it was already dark when they arrived.
Reinforcements from three estates arrived. They could not see the war, only a large group of men and women preparing for war.
Vadim personally entertained the three manor owners who had brought troops to support them. While hosting a banquet, he seriously asked how many reinforcements there were.
He was full of joy, but was poured cold water on reality.
"A mere eight hundred people?! What is this? When I planned to lead the army to annihilate the traitors in White Tree Manor, you people who support me stood still!"
Three The manor owners couldn't argue. Their respective manors had a small population, so taking out so many people together showed their sincerity.
Vadim didn’t want to waste any more words, after all, a group of reinforcements arrived.
But very suddenly, many people saw stars shining in the woods in the south.
What is that? It's from Russia! Must be a Russian! The Ross army is camped just south of the manor!
The restlessness in the manor forced Vadim to walk to the shore of the lake in person. Looking at a bonfire in the south, he became angry and cursed at two o'clock.
Grund left a few men to continue to keep a symbolic watch at the mouth of the river. Those who stayed behind deliberately lit more bonfires, actually showing their presence to the enemy. The people who stayed behind went a little too far. Just because they lit a lot of bonfires in the enemy's manor was obviously a provocation. How could the brothers not light a lot of fires to counterattack?
The reinforcements from the five farms finally arrived at Pine Needle Manor late at night. The reinforcements were panting from exhaustion, and Vadim's men were also exhausted mentally and physically from the whole day's toil.
The total strength of the reinforcements is nearly 1,500 people. In addition, Pine Needle Manor has been able to gather 5,000 male and female soldiers with all its capabilities. It is obviously feasible to piece together an army of more than 6,000 people.
But everyone is too tired. Vadim originally planned to take the initiative to attack tomorrow, but due to the current situation, he had to continue to accumulate strength.
He even had some optimism, blaming himself for being uncomfortable with his angry words to his allies in the evening.
The five farms sent nearly 1,500 troops. Not counting the defected farms, there were more than ten farms that did not send troops simply because they did not receive the news. If the situation was left to ferment for a few days, we wouldMaybe we can actually assemble an army of ten thousand people!
Ten thousand warriors, as many as ten thousand men and women armed! This is a very astonishing number for everyone, and it is enough to support everyone's confidence in winning.
Novgorod has never been as powerful as it is today.
Vadim even lamented: "How could we have allowed the Russians to succeed when we assembled such a large army decades ago?"
The Slavs fell asleep one after another. At night, a group of sneaky soldiers The evil man ran towards the lake.
Grund and his men said nothing. The twenty women who were under strict control had their mouths tied with ropes and their hands were also tied with ropes. Some women didn't know what the future would bring, and their struggles earned them slaps from the Varangians. Others who were really dishonest simply had their hands and feet tied up, and were carried by strong warriors to the longship.
No one noticed their actions, even if they did, it didn't matter.
The long boat was quickly overcrowded, and a few people on the shore finally pushed the boat to the shoal and were pulled up by their companions. They rowed hard and managed to row the boat into the lake.
Now, Grund finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It was also very sudden, and an arrogant idea emerged in his mind: "Brothers, if the main force of the Russians fights that arrogant Vadim, it will be a big battle. Do we brothers watch the battle?" ”
Perhaps everyone murmured that they were not afraid of anything on the lake. The brave people quickly unified their attitude-keep a safe distance to watch the show.
No, they just floated on the lake quietly waiting for the sunrise, waiting to watch the Russians deal with the violent Slavs.
On the other hand, Grund himself has escorted the prisoners back to the army gathering place at White Tree Manor as quickly as possible.
The three prisoners captured in total saw Varangians everywhere and the Volkhov River was filled with terrifying ships. They were so frightened that they became incontinent and their legs seemed to have lost all muscle. Walking, throwing it on the ground and just trembling.
Rurik was quite surprised by Grund's return, and when he saw the trembling captive, he immediately became interested.
"Sir, we know a lot of specific information about the enemy, as well as these three prisoners. We have made meritorious service, and you have to give us some reward." Grund sat on the ground to accept the credit.
“Forget it, let’s give each of you a silver coin and go down and rest.”
“That’s it?”
“You have made a meritorious service by capturing a prisoner. , but I didn’t let you do this. This is against the law! You couldn’t have expected anything, so I gave you a silver coin and went to eat quickly.”
Grund shrugged and left with his brothers angrily. Looking for the fragrance of wheat, I hurried to the big pottery urn where the wheat was cooked and got my dinner directly.
Rurik interrogated the prisoners on the spot, threatening in Slavonic that they were pardoned for their treason crimes at Pine Needle Manor in exchange for making them report.
This report is good. Rurik and his cronies are fully aware that the rebel Vadim is gatheringThe troops also plan to take the initiative to attack. Obviously, Vadim's side needs more time to make strategic preparations.
In this case, the war is not just a simple counter-insurgency by the Russian army, but a counterattack in which both sides intend to initiate a full-scale war? At this moment, the last bit of psychological ambition deep in Rurik's heart was gone.
The soft light of the setting sun swept across the forest, and the faces of the Ross warriors gathered by the river turned orange. Soon, the setting sun turned red!
“What a bloody sunset!” Arik couldn’t help but sigh.
"Indeed. Brother." Rurik said casually: "These three prisoners are handed over to you, you know what to do."
"Oh? I understand. Boy , I thought you were going to be merciful." Aric smiled.
Rurik couldn't laugh, he looked solemn: "I said, the rebellious Pine Needle Manor must be destroyed. Now you and I both know that if we don't take action, they will take the initiative. These three people participated If you rebel, you have to be determined to die. Let’s help them face it.”
“Yes. Let’s do things quickly and get them to a hiding place.” It's a pleasure, and it's our kindness."
Arik nodded in agreement, and escorted the prisoner towards the farm with a stern face.
Old Otto saw all this, he said nothing, and he was only satisfied in his heart.