But it was said that Ragnar led his tribe into the city of Bremen. This hard-core ruthless man held an iron sword and led his troops to pursue and kill the people who were fleeing in panic.
They killed indiscriminately and spared no one.
The frightened city people's morale had already collapsed, and they even forgot to resist, and were killed in the screams.
But Ragnar did not care about the enjoyment of killing. He ordered his subordinates to retaliate cleanly and kill one person with one sword. Sending these obstructive personnel would help everyone plunder.
Ragnar's troops groped forward in the alleyways. At first, they looted the houses, but apart from some daily necessities and a batch of stored grain, they found only a few silver and copper coins.
"You guys search for all the wheat. Don't grab the food first. Find a pocket and put all the silver coins you find..."
He gave orders like this, trying his best to control the crazy people. The tribesmen looted rationally.
Finally, one of his subordinates told him: "There are a large number of people crowded in the south of the city. They seem to want to escape. There is also their temple (referring to the church). It is said that there is a lot of gold there."
At this moment, Ragnar was overjoyed.
"Then focus on attacking the temple!"
More than two hundred Viking fanatics, led by Ragnar who was covered in blood, ran wildly along the road leading to the church.
They entered the city square first and saw a crowd of civilians running around.
Looking at the citizens in the city, a group of guys holding round shields suddenly came into view. Apart from holding their heads and screaming, the only way to escape was to escape.
"That's it." Ragnar pointed his sword directly, "Enter the monastery, kill them, and take the gold and silver!"
Ragna's follow-up personnel also entered the city In the square, three hundred of the last elite Viking warriors of the Stonewall tribe, led by the leader who fell into madness, rushed towards St. Peter's Church in Bremen with all their strength.
In terms of architectural scale, this church is the largest wooden building in the city, and it has a history of half a century.
When Blue Fox was in trouble, he stayed here for a while and gained a certain understanding of the history of the church. Not to mention that he himself was baptized here. Even so, Blue Fox, who was completely on the side of the invaders, was only slightly touched by the church being captured.
As for Ragnar, no one restricted his actions at all. Even the Russians, who are allies, are eager for this group of madmen to kill and destroy as much as possible, thereby attracting the firepower of Bremen's military and civilians and giving the Russians enough time to grab food.
However, Bremen has completely become an undefended city, and the city is full of sheep running around.
Especially this church, it looks like a sheepfold.
On the other hand, the senior priest who acted as Bishop of this church for Eskil still firmly believed in his faith in times of crisis.
He stood on the podium, holding the covered scriptures to his chest with both hands.
There were as many as 2,000 believers in the audience. Some of them were sitting anxiously on the benches, and more people randomly found an open space.Kneel down, listen to the sermon, and pray for a miracle.
The priests were singing the content of the Old Testament in Latin. The so-called Messiah happened, the prisoners in Babylon were saved, and the aliens suffered divine punishment.
At this moment, there is no need to think about logic.
The city has been captured, and they prayed with great expectation, hoping that the entire church would become a barrier blessed by the Lord, and that the power of sacred faith could form an invisible wall to keep the Normans out. Quietly waiting for the flames descended by the Seraph to burn the Normans to ashes...
However, a double-edged Nordic forest ax angrily smashed the bronze lock of the church door to pieces.
The door suddenly opened.
What suddenly broke in was not the angels they were expecting, but a group of vicious Normans with blond hair dyed red, shouting Odin.
Ragnar did not think this was a sacred place, but he was surprised to see so many people in front of him. He was heartened. If the entire auditorium were filled with warriors, it would be difficult to deal with his current manpower.
Ragnar and his gang were attracted by the legend of getting rich. They have long tried to attack Bremen. In the past, they only had thankless attacks, but now, they will get rich today. As long as a large group of "obstacles" in front of you are solved, the treasure will be in the sack.
The cowering crowd screamed in terror. Some ran away screaming, some fell into unconsciousness, and some knelt down and continued to pray...
Some Viking warriors couldn't help but panic when faced with the chaotic crowd: "Boss, what should we do? Are we going to kill these people?"
"Are you trying to persuade me to be merciful?"
"No! There are too many of them. Once they fight, we may be outnumbered..."
Ragnar shook his head hard and suddenly shouted: "Shield wall! Kill these enemies! No mercy!"
Knowing that they were a large group of unarmed people, Ragnar, who felt no guilt, identified them all as Frankish warriors. For very practical reasons, he could have taken the opportunity to capture many captives and sell them as slaves to make money. Ragnar is currently unable to do this and directly kills as many people as possible. Firstly, he can vent the long-suppressed emotions of the tribe, and secondly, he can also serve as a gift to the new recruits. Allies of Ross see what a madman is.
The shield wall was like a meat grinder. After Ragnar's troops entered the church, they set up their formation and charged forward. The shield wall continued to advance, followed by people lying in a pool of blood.
The priests were all panicked, and together with the people, they rushed out of the side door of the church. However, the two side entrances were not large, causing congestion in a short time.
The fear became even worse. They began to trample on each other again, and many people were trampled to death.
In this closed space, the sacred and noble St. Peter's Church becomes the territory.
Even Ragnar could not have imagined that he led his troops to kill so smoothly. Behind them were already covered with corpses in pools of blood, and the blood gathered into a river and flowed out of the main entrance of the church.
In terms of the scale of the killing, this incidentThe tragedy in Bremen in 836 was even more horrific than the tragedy at Lindisfarne Abbey in 792.
More than a thousand people were killed, and nearly a thousand people still escaped through two side doors.
Ragnar and his men were also killed to exhaustion, but the brothers felt that their achievements were destined to impress Odin, and the dead were all so-called sacrifices to the gods of Asgard. Although they were panting from exhaustion and even their iron swords were curled, their pursuit and killing continued.
As many as ten priests wearing black robes were not killed directly, but were escorted outdoors to be used as priests.
Ragnar is not a mindless butcher. He knows what a Frankish "priest" is, and killing such people in a public way is the best sacrifice.
At this moment, the Ross army arrived at the church belatedly.
Aric suddenly saw the dead body lying outside and a dark red river flowing from the church.
This was the first time Blue Fox had seen this scene. Thinking that he had lived here before, he never imagined that it would become a battlefield.
Ragnar tried hard to keep his head clear and suppress his racing heart. Seeing Arik who had finally arrived, he pointed very proudly at the church where there was no big problem on the surface: "I killed a thousand people, which is a huge achievement. My people grabbed some gold and silver! Damn it, gold and silver The pile of mountains does not exist."
"Ah!? You only have three hundred people, and you killed a thousand people in such a short time?" How could Arik not be surprised? This number is too exaggerated.
"I just did it. You! You must admit my bravery."
"Don't talk about it yet. Keep chasing them! Let's go, Ragnar brothers, keep chasing them." Frank takes revenge." After saying that, Arik patted Ragnar on the shoulder and led his troops to rush towards the south of the city where the shouts turned into roars...
Ragna gritted his teeth and greeted his own. Brother: "Take the gold and silver you grabbed and continue to fight with me! Kill the Franks, and then we will slowly loot them."
The Viking fanatics, covered in blood and sweat, after a short rest Entering the final battle, at this moment they will encircle and suppress the last enemy entrenched in the south of the city by the Ross army.
Aric had already arrived with his team first, and when he saw the people huddled together, they became entangled on the spot.
According to their own inherent principles, enemy women should not be killed, but should be tied up, transported to their hometowns and sold. Eventually, these women will be absorbed by the Russians and become the mothers of a new generation of Russian warriors. Given the Nordic traditional tribal thinking, each tribe should do this.
When he felt a sense of compassion, Jevro suddenly asked: "Aric, do you want to take action immediately? According to the prince's order, we must show no mercy."
Only At this glance, Arikna's kindness suddenly disappeared.
"All archers!" he said, "line up and shoot!"
Arik is indeed different from Ragnar. After experiencing too many actual battles, he has become more and more fond of meeting enemies. First use the strategy of using arrow formation to defend against the enemy, which is proven in actual combat.Understand that this is an excellent means of reducing one's own losses.
But the battle has changed. Even the shooter feels that his attack is not glorious.
Those people running around were all unarmed people, and their actions were to escape from the city. They were obviously crowded at the gate and trying their best to rush out, so that the double wooden doors that were supposed to open inward couldn't be opened at all! Of course, even if it is opened, there is still a hanging door that needs to be pulled up with a winch. If this door does not pull in the refugees, they still cannot escape.
The city walls were also filled with people, and a large number of people wandered around in despair.
Arrows flew mercilessly, and crossbows and longbows mercilessly shot at this large group of unarmored targets.
In fact, a group of people had already descended the city wall along the ropes and escaped. There were also some people who were injured, dragging their injured limbs and forcibly leaving.
There are still more than 4,000 people crowded in the southern part of the city of Bremen. The arrow attacks from the Russians undoubtedly made the already bad situation worse.
"Those who shoot at the city wall, hurry up!" Jevro ordered.
In terms of combat experience, Yevro actually has more experience than Arik. When he was younger, he had to fight for the former financial lord Gould, and he always experienced a fight to the death on a scale of fifty people. . The emphasis in small-scale battles is to frighten the enemy with momentum, but it is even more important in large-scale battles.
People who were lingering on the city wall for fear of jumping to their death became living targets. At first some people were hit by arrows, and then they were hit by arrows one after another, and many people fell because of it.
The panic further intensified, and at this moment Ragnar finally arrived with his army.
Without any words, Arik and Ragnar looked at each other and began to cooperate in the killing with a tacit understanding.
This was not a battle between armies at all. Businessmen, craftsmen, farmers, and even a large number of women were all mercilessly killed by Ragnar's Viking warriors. The same is true for the Russian army. Even if Arik felt a little compassion for a time, his men had a completely different attitude. They did not feel that they were a group of non-combatants, just a group of cowards who had not had time to take up arms and fight.
On one side, there is a shield wall forming a terrifying meat grinder-like thrust, and on the other side, there are dense arrows falling from the sky.
A large number of people trying to escape realized that there was no point in taking the south gate, so they had no choice but to take the risk.
No longer thinking about the risk of death or injury if you jump, a large number of people walked onto the city wall at the risk of being shot, and then jumped with their eyes closed.
Some people broke their necks and cracked their skulls directly. Such people died immediately. Some people broke their arms and staggered away while covering their broken arms. Some broke their legs and had to crawl to escape from Bremen, which had turned into a hell on earth.
Arik saw a strange sight. He had been fighting for Ross for eight full years, and he had not seen such a crazy escapee in these eight years.
"Cowards! You dare to jump over the city wall, but you don't have the guts to fight us!"
This shocking scene inspired him even moreAngry, he further screamed: "Brothers! Show no mercy! Help them jump over the wall and fall to death!"
Indeed, at first the people who jumped over the wall suffered a lot of injuries, but then there were a lot of soft things under the wall. The "sandbags" were a group of people who fell to death or were shot. The presence of a large number of corpses gave the successors enough buffer.
Like lemmings jumping into the sea, people in Bremen jumped in panic, and even mothers jumped out in anger while holding their children tightly in their arms.
At least there is a possibility of survival if you jump. Take a look! The living people who had jumped down earlier were already running away on the field where there was only one stubble left after harvesting the wheat.
As a result, the killing of the coalition forces quickly stopped. Even because of excessive exhaustion, Ragnar's troops saw the enemy jumping over the wall to escape frantically, so there was no need to wave with sore arms. Prisoners of war beheaded. On the other hand, considering the need to save arrows, the Finns of Gevlo holding longbows also suspended their attacks.
At the last moment, the coalition forces watched ferociously as the last one hundred or so people jumped over the wall to escape.
It was only then that the coalition soldiers stepped on the dead bodies onto the wooden city wall, watching the Bremen people gradually running away with mixed emotions.
"There is no need to pursue anymore." Arik couldn't help but sigh while standing on the city wall.
Ragnar sighed after hearing this, and then agreed: "Killing cowards is not an honor. But I captured ten of their priests, which is reflected in the fact that the sun is in the sky, which is just right to sacrifice to Odin."
"It's up to you! I don't like those priests at all. Did you grab a lot of gold and silver?"
"I got some in the church." Ragnar said Then he forced a smile to cover up his fatigue.
"Well, apart from getting a lot of wheat, we Russians didn't find any other treasures. We have an appointment first, you grabbed the gold, I have nothing to say. Next, we will take the city square Looting separately for the sake of the world, remembering to give the dying person a sword, it is the last mercy of you and me."
"Just do it"
In the evening, Ragnar held a public sacrifice, and the ten captured priests had their throats cut by him in public.
What’s even crazier is that Blue Fox, who took off his helmet, was at the scene. What’s heartbreaking is that he also deliberately flashed the cross on his chest. Although he has grown his beard, it has not grown too much in months. The acting bishop who was about to be executed suddenly recognized the identity of Blue Fox.
"Joseph! You are a traitor! It was you who led the Normans to Bremen. The Lord will send down divine punishment! You will be burned to death!" This was the acting bishop's final outrightness.
Blue Fox was unmoved. He participated in the action as an Odin warrior, and ended up hanging a cross pendant. The man himself was full of contradictions.
Blue Fox himself understood it clearly: "Don't forget! The Russians are also Normans! Your king killed many Russians. This is our revenge! I have no enmity with you, but You must die. Eskil is under our control, and it is clear that the Lord will not help you anymore."
The sacrifice was over, and all the exhausted warriors under Ragnar roared in joy. They further searched for loot, and this time they searched very carefully, looking for iron tools, copper coins, and silver coins.
The same Russians were also looking for these things, and the two sides made a temporary treaty for this purpose. The treaty was proposed by Arik, and Ragnar thought it was fair. The so-called treaty was bounded by the central square of the city, with the north belonging to Ross for plundering and the south belonging to Ragnar. Ragnar felt it was fair because he thought he had gotten a big bargain. He got a batch of gold and silver vessels from the church, but he didn't know that the Russians had gained a huge amount.
How much rye was in stock in the seized granary? Maybe a million pounds, and just moving it would be a hassle.
So what does one hundred pounds of wheat mean? According to the agreement with Prince Rurik, the army can share half of the spoils, and then divide them equally according to the number of soldiers and sailors. On average, each person can get exactly one thousand pounds of wheat. If this is the case, a family's entire year's worth of food will probably be in hand. Even if it was to be exchanged for money, the prince had already said that the purchase would be at the price of ten pounds of wheat and one silver coin, and the settlement would be made immediately.
Looking back again at this large granary that was firmly controlled by the Ross army, Arik, holding a torch, inspected them carefully in the evening and couldn't help but sigh: "Maybe I didn't bring enough ships!"
That night, the coalition forces spent the night in a city full of corpses.
Ragnar's men found a group of women and immediately became the playthings of these victors, only to be killed again. They used the captured grain to make delicious meals. Although they did not know how much the Russians captured, Ragnar boasted that he had made a fortune this time. He had never been as crazy and happy as he is today in his life. This is the joy of making a fortune, and it is also a great opportunity Revenge is avenged happily. The central square of the city is an obvious open space. Ragnar brought the non-combatant tribesmen outside the city into the city. While sharing the victory, he also gathered the manpower to carry the loot outside the city tomorrow.
The situation is similar for the Russians, but starting from nightfall, the work of transporting food begins. The small cart on which the torsion slingshot was mounted unloaded the slingshot and moved the sack full of rye with all its might. A large number of bonfires were lit at the wharf firmly controlled by the fleet for lighting. The tired soldiers took a lot of rest. The professional sailors disembarked and began to transport wheat. This work will be carried out all night until early tomorrow morning, when the awakened main force begins to participate in the operation.
Arik and Ragnar both reached a consensus that it was not suitable to stay here for a long time. Ragnar had already stated that there were pursuers behind him, so the window period given to the coalition forces to fight and plunder was very short. Even if everyone was very tired, the plunder must be completed within two days, and then they could retreat to a safe area and have a good rest. Figure out a way out again.