Chapter 763 Ragnar

The fleet has entered the Weser River, but the atmosphere in this area is a bit scary.

Aric stood on the bow of the boat, frowning, and muttered to the people around him: "The atmosphere is too quiet, there is no human atmosphere, I don't think this area is very rich."

Blue Fox also felt strange: "It's strange. When I left a few months ago, there were many fishing boats floating on this river, and there were also ships at the entrance."

"Maybe we were exposed? They Did you run away out of fear?" Jevro was also confused.

After careful consideration, they decided to move on. Arik even issued an order to prepare for battle. After all, it was the first time for the brothers to enter the unknown hinterland of Frankish territory, and they might encounter enemy attacks under any circumstances.

Soon, obvious signs of villages appeared in front of them, or it could be said that they were simply the destruction of villages.

Arik squinted and stared: "Why do I think that is the burned village? Who did all this?"

This is equivalent to asking the blue fox, but the blue fox How to know the situation?

"There is a village in this generation. As for signs of destruction, we may be able to send people to take a look."

Aric shrugged: "Okay, send a dozen Let me go take a look. It would be great if we found the barn and seized the grain."

The Salmon Chief launched two flat-bottomed rowing boats hanging from the side. They were real boats, holding ten people. Sit and log in.

The fleet also took the opportunity to anchor, and everyone waited for good news.

They didn't wait long, but unfortunately they obviously didn't get the good news either. Those who returned were empty-handed, and except for a few people holding blackened wooden sticks, there was no "capture".

They all boarded the boat to report their duties, and each of them had obviously encountered some bad luck, and their expressions were grim.

Arik was furious: "You were frightened, or you encountered an enemy. It doesn't look like there was a fight."

The leader shook his head and said bluntly: "Boss, You better not go there. Those villages stink. There are rotting corpses everywhere. It’s a cursed place.”

“Oh? You mean there were attacks there?”

"And the attack has been going on for a while. Look at the method, it is quite our style."

"We?" Arik shook his head: "We will also collect the bodies of the dead. ! So a group of gangsters attacked the village?"

"Who knows?"

Aric waved and said nothing, and he and the others quickly reached a consensus. It is said that there are gangster gangs in this generation, and this is probably the reason why the environment is so peaceful.

The Frankish village was attacked in broad daylight. Based on Blue Fox’s understanding of this generation, he immediately pointed out that this should be the reality. Because this area belongs to the Earl of Bremen, it is not surprising that there are always bandit activities in the territory.

"As far as I know, the earl was ordered to lead troops to attack the Danes. The departure of the army naturally made the bandits rampant."

Based on this intelligence, AhRick couldn't help but have other thoughts. Will the so-called gangsters rob Bremen first? Will the brothers come all the way to be in vain?

As boxes of cast-iron bullets were carried to the deck, all ships' torsion slingshots were ready for battle.

Soldiers holding crossbows guarded the deck, and everyone was watching their surroundings, ready to fight at any time.

Aric and his group of knife-edge blood-licking guys have a high sense of battlefield, especially when they were attacking the Karelia people, they were also attacked unexpectedly while sailing on the river. They were afraid that they would be attacked again. Something unexpected happened.

The fleet is arranged in a column, so that if it is attacked on either side, all kinds of long-range weapons can carry out saturation strikes. The Rus' army was highly wary of hidden arrows flying from the riverside forest, and their vigilance was excessive.

They have passed the fairly straight channel of the Weser River, and bends are beginning to appear in front of them, and large forests have blocked the river channel.

As the lead ship completed the turn, the scene ahead instantly aroused the tension of the soldiers.

Because the Salmon Chief took the lead as the flagship, Arik rubbed his eyes hard and exclaimed: "Ah! What did I see? The longship? Who are this large group of people?"

"At least they are not our allies. Everyone here may be our enemy." Blue Fox warned, and the listeners were highly alert.

Aric also felt that what Blue Fox said was very pertinent. Youdao said that offense is the best defense. In order to avoid being attacked by this group of obvious Nordic armed men, it is better for the Russian army to give them a rain of arrows first. .

"Attention, brothers! Raise our skull and crossbones flag, arrows are in place, wait for my order to launch!"

The entire Ross Army on the route is undisguised, and the flags of each ship are flying. However, when they encountered unknown armed men on the Weser River, the skull and crossbones flag became a battle flag.

They not only raised the flag, but the horn holders blew the deep and powerful horn.

All signs prove that this army, which is like a divine weapon descending from the sky, is about to kill people!

Looking at the group of longships and personnel docked, they are all actively fighting. They don't seem to want to have a water battle with Ross. Indeed, their longships are no match for Ross's ship.

People in different clothes all came ashore, and the bonfire camp on the shore instantly transformed into a military formation.

The round shields painted in colorful colors formed a long shield wall, and it was some distance away from the river.

"They are going to fight, maybe these people are Danes!" Blue Fox deliberately responded: "The Danes should also attack!"

Arik nodded, Seeing that the brothers are ready to shoot arrows.

Yevluo stepped forward at the critical moment: "We don't even know their true identities, so we can't fight just when we meet! I don't like fighting in a confused battle."

"Wait for them Turned into corpses, it’s enough for us to know how many people are left alive.who are they. "After saying this, Arik raised his right hand, and when it fell, thousands of arrows were fired.

Arik's hand was grasped by Jevro, and he was close to his bearded face. "Brother! The prince asked me to accompany you just because he was worried about your recklessness. Look at them! Put on a grand battle formation! I think we should negotiate with them. They are obviously not a Frankish army. We cannot fight foolishly. ”

Aric staggered and gave up the battle order for the time being.

Since the negotiation was proposed by Jevro, he will be responsible for the negotiation.

Look now Jevro, who wears a typical Viking war helmet and carries a blue and white buckler on his back. He is a little short, and the guards around him are tall and strong men-slayers from the first standard.

They landed, and some people held the Ross flag and walked straight towards the well-arranged military formation.

The more Yevluo walked, the more clearly he could see the faces of those people, and he felt something strange.

“I actually saw armed women and children? ! ”

Indeed, among the armed men there are women with blond hair, and their beautiful facial features are very different from those of unshaven men. As for the armed children, they are obviously small men, but they are still standing on the front line of the military formation. .

Jevro stopped and then shouted in Norse: "Who is your leader? ! Are you going to fight our Ross? If you want to fight, just charge and kill, come on! ”

Behind him was the tense Ross fleet. There were thirty torsion slingshots on the enemy side alone, and there were even two hundred people holding various types of crossbows.

Looking at the armed men, they were lined up in a long line and it was difficult to see the exact number of them. Their apparent size was very intimidating. Some of them were sure to be holding the flag with the raven heraldry. They were on guard, not for Jevlo. Moved by the shouting.

Time continued to ferment the situation, and finally Yevluo roared for a while, and the opponent's array finally moved.

The array moved a few times. A bearded young man with strange braids stepped forward holding a buckler and a battle axe.

“Are you the leader? "Yevluo continued to ask.

A young warrior roared like a lion: "I know you! Russians! ”

“Oh? So who are you? Danish? ”

From Javlo’s perspective, the other party hesitated for a while before pointing out that he was indeed a Dane. After hearing this clearly, Javlo subconsciously held the hilt of his sword and signaled others to prepare for the fight. Prepare for unexpected events.

Seeing that the man who was speaking left his followers and continued to move forward, Yevluo also ordered his followers to stand by and went up to meet him.

The man in front of him was quite tall. He is strong and strong, and his deep eyes are full of vicissitudes of life. The first impression given to Yevluo is that this person has experienced too many things.

Yevluo asked cautiously: "This is obviously Frank. Human territory, why are you Danes here? ”

The man asked arrogantly: “This is indeed Frankish territory, why are you Russians here?” ”

It’s so boring to question each other,Jevlo's pride was offended.

"Why? Have you seen this fleet? We came to plunder treasures. It's really unlucky that we met you Danes here." Jevro's words were deliberately provocative. He instinctively felt that the two sides were still going to fight. Maybe these people were Frank's mercenaries. After all, there had been rumors about this.

Unexpectedly, the young man who looked like a leader raised his head and laughed wildly: "Oh, I can probably guess what you want to do! You want to rob Bremen."

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Yevluo couldn't help but retreat because of the huge difference: "You actually knew?"

The two sides were quiet for a while, and the man shouted again: "It seems that I guessed it right. Russians, we Maybe we can make a deal."

"What?"

"You and I will continue to sail as if we haven't encountered it yet."

"Why? Wait!" Yevro realized something that was difficult to express. He frowned and asked: "So, you don't actually want to attack us? Even if you set up a battle formation."

Then The man also banged his shield and pointed out: "If you attack us, our army would rather fight back."

Jevro took advantage of the situation and laughed lowly: "You know how powerful Ross is, so you should understand that choosing to fight is to attack the stone with an egg. Our Russian navy killed your old king Hafgen. No Dane can defeat our fleet."

"It is not necessarily a land battle, but we would rather fight for the sake of honor. , even if we are defeated. If my tribe is defeated by you, we will be honored even though we are defeated."

The words of this young leader are admirable, and there are many signs that they are really just camping on this river beach. That's all, the encounter with the fleet was a coincidence. They do not want war and are not afraid of war.

Essentially, they still don’t want to fight!

Jevro thought for a while, and the sun often started to set in the west. He changed the subject a little and said something nice: "We are also looking for a suitable campsite. We don't want to fight, and the same goes for you. . Maybe we can share this river beach."

"You..."

"I am Javlo, a Finn, a general under the command of the Prince of Rus. (War Chief). "Jevlo was the first to send a peace signal.

Looking at the man holding his head high again: "Okay! A warlord among the Russians. I am Ragnar Sigurdsson. People say that I am a man in woolen trousers. I have killed one The big shot, named Olegin, is said to be the king of the Svealans. I am a big shot, and you must be just a small role among the Rus."

A small role? Javlo had no intention of showing off that he was the count of the entire Suomi people. In theory, he managed Finland, especially the 30,000 people in Suomi, on behalf of Prince Rurik.

Indeed, this man is Ragnar, a great pirate destined to become a legend. It's a pity that, just as history is destined, he illegally robbed Paris in that plane and was made into the East-West Law.Rankus found a reason to invade Denmark and was expelled by King Horik.

Today Ragnar is in exile with his entire family. The people camping on this river beach are the last group of his tribe.

A brave man will always continue to be brave. He lost many excellent warriors, and also lost many women and children. Although the essence of the tribe is still there, it is a pity that everyone has become a bandit who has lost his territory. In fact, it is a bereaved dog. However, they have not lost their pride.

Ragnar continued to claim that he was leading the entire Stonewall tribe into exile. In principle, he did not want to fight, at least not a meaningless battle with the Rus.

Jevro has no affection for Svealan or the concept of Sweden, but this man claims to have killed Olegin with his own hands. If true, he is indeed a respectable person.

The two sides are still trapped in a chain of suspicion, and a misunderstanding can lead to a fight between the two sides.

Perhaps the Russian army can maintain restraint as much as possible, but it is not ruled out that this group of Danes may strike first.

Jevro thought for a moment and persuaded Ragnar, who was trapped in conflicts: "Our Russian army is indeed planning to attack Bremen. Since you will not participate, don't cause trouble for us. I don't ask you. Put down your weapons, at least don't ask for trouble after we land. This river beach is very large, and our army will keep its distance from you. However, since you are a warrior, we might as well keep our distance. We can have a good chat over ale and grilled fish in the evening. The Franks are all our enemies, and the enemies of our enemies are friends. At least we don’t have to fight.”

Yeah. Flo felt that he had exhausted all his power. No matter what Ragnar chose, the Ross army just needed a qualified anchorage and a suitable camp for the army. He withdrew safely, and all his actions were clearly seen by Arik and others in the distance.

From Ragnar's perspective, no matter how heroic he was, he was not stupid enough to become an enemy of the Ross fleet. Now that things have happened, can I still be considered a Dane? The entire tribe has been driven out by King Horik of Denmark. If they don't retreat quickly enough, everyone will be killed by those people.

The Danes remained on alert, and Ragnar and his cronies watched the Ross army, which was basically uniformly dressed, land. Their formation looks chaotic and they will definitely not take the initiative to attack.

Seeing this, someone encouraged Ragnar: "Chief, we should strike first. Their ship is very good, and there must be a lot of food in the cabin. We take the opportunity to seize the supplies, and everything will be fine."

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"Are you a fool?" Ragnar was furious, and immediately took this statement as an example and announced to all the tribesmen: "Don't try to attack them by surprise. The Russians are not fools! Now the Franks are chasing us, The villain in Denmark is chasing us. If we offend the Russians and we are hunted down by them, everything will be over!"

Indeed, from the perspective of the Russians, Arik serves as a commander.How could the commander be moved by Jevlo's words? Especially the man named Ragnar who claimed to have killed Olegin!

Even if Olegin is no longer a thing, he is still the leader elected by all the Svealan tribes. He is uncle Otto, so he has to be respected on the surface.

At this moment, Arik became very jealous of his younger brother Rurik. Although I didn't kill the old Danish King Hafgen with my own hands, I still used the ship Aurora to smash him into fish feed.

On the contrary, Arik showed some timidity. It was a pity that he did not have the "king-killing" level of achievements.

He didn’t know the specific reason. This encounter was strange in the past. Since the other party’s original intention was not to fight, the Russian army had no need to fight to the end with a group of exiled Danes before attacking Bremen.

The Russian army landed, but all ships were left behind. Torque slingshots were aimed at the Danes' bonfire camps. The chute was used at a high angle to confront the enemy. The weapons were also replaced with lightweight javelins. This way, once the Danes made a mistake, the Russian army could take advantage of the initiative.

Arik himself also set foot on the river beach. The soldiers carried the iron pots from the ship, piled bricks brought from New Roseburg, and built the pots and stoves on the spot. Along with the charcoal brought from his hometown, he boiled wheat and dried salted fish with water from the Weser River to make salty soup.

Commanders on both sides maintained restraint, as well as vigilance and hostility. The camps of both sides were about three hundred meters away from each other, because Ragnar believed that by maintaining this distance, the terrifying bows and arrows of the Russian army would definitely not hit his head. At least Ragnar did not dare to really anger the Ross army for the sake of the lives of the last women and children in the tribe.

As night gradually fell, the aroma of wheat soup from the Ross camp ruthlessly filled the sky above the Ragnar camp. During these days, Ragnar and his people relied on robbery along the river to make a living. Piracy had scared the Frankish civilians into fleeing with their belongings, making it even more difficult to rob homes and provide supplies. They tried to attack Bremen, but all their efforts came to nothing when they saw the wooden castle.

Ragnar actually couldn't hold on anymore. According to his plan, he would sleep on the river beach tonight, eat some food that was not much, and paddle out of the river tomorrow. As for where to go in the future? Denmark definitely can't go back, maybe try its luck in Flanders (northern Netherlands), or continue to rob all the way along the coastline, and if they can find an island with fresh water, the whole family can settle down. After all, the tribe's main business is fishing, and it can make a comeback if it can form a stable fishing village.

However, another theory began to circulate in the camp.

Someone groped towards Ragnar: "Chief, brothers are really hungry. Since the Rus don't want to attack us, can we actually ask them for some help. They obviously When cooking a delicious meal, we are all Odin's warriors, so we should share some of it." Hearing this, Ragnar really wanted to scold his waiter for being a fool, but his stomach also growled. Make a fool of yourself immediately.

IfIf anyone could impress him with his perseverance, it was his two children. Especially his eldest son Ivar, whose legs have shrunk, and his second son Bjorn, who has just learned to walk. The child cried out that he was hungry, and even though he had a heart of stone, Ragnar's heart still softened.

He didn’t want to have any interaction with the Russians, so he just treated them as strangers to each other during today’s encounter. But the mood of the entire tribe is restless, and not everyone can insist on their honor and resist the temptation of food.

He gritted his teeth and summoned the tribe’s cronies to gather together for a small surprise meeting.

"I have decided! The leader of the Ross army wants to talk to me. I can go to the meeting and maybe get some food for the brothers. But maybe this will be a conspiracy. If I If they are killed, you should retreat to the woods with your tribe and try not to fight with them."

The cronies looked at each other and fell into silence...

They all wanted to say. But he couldn't say anything. Looking at them again, Ragna made up his mind and ordered: "I will go to the meeting by myself. Don't follow me! I don't believe they will be despicable people, so let's go..."

Ragnar stood up, patted himself, arched his back, picked up a burning firewood, and ran towards the Russian camp.

A burning flame is approaching the camp, and the vigilant Ross army has secretly picked up the guy.

"Is this the guest you are talking about? Maybe it's Ragnar?" Arik, who had already stood up, asked Jevro in confusion.

"It should be. He is only one person. He told the brothers not to be too nervous and not to use violence without orders at any time. I... will go and see the situation for myself." After speaking, Yevluo They also picked up a piece of firewood and walked toward each other.