The people of Godfreyhagen have no idea of the imminent threat!
Of course they also know that every year, the Ross ship majestically rushes through the wide Denmark Strait. The painful experience told them not to provoke these madmen on the sea. If the Russians had no other intentions, fishing boats and merchant ships should stay away from them for the time being.
The two sides have maintained a rather delicate relationship for several years.
Since the end of the expedition against Britain, the Viking Kingdom of York has arisen on half of the Kingdom of Northumbria. Viking immigrants from Norway have stabilized a territory and began to flow in continuously. of immigration. This was a colonial act, a spontaneous movement of Norwegians. The Norwegians from all walks of life were forced to rely on fishing for health. They also wanted to open up a new livelihood of growing wheat to expand their experience. Therefore, Biyoni Magnute, the king of the Viking Kingdom of York and Rurik's blood-sworn brother, Song desperately tried to absorb these newcomers, the kingdom lived according to Viking customary laws, and his strength continued to increase.
With this ally in the East, every year the Russian Spyut's grain harvesting team can obtain grain from the weakened Northumbria and Mercia.
Due to the strong fighting power of the Vikings, Northumbria and Mercia lost their military strength to resist. This loss is not only reflected in the difficulty of the nobles recruiting more troops, but also in the fact that the two kingdoms originally had a small population, and the population became even less after being attacked by the Norwegian-Russian coalition.
The two small kingdoms ceased fire with each other and paid tribute to the Vikings. They were not simply fat sheep that contributed wool every year. They paid tribute and received the promise of military assistance from the Vikings. Deterred by the Viking army, the powerful Kingdom of Wessex was also afraid of going north to fight against the invaders.
Even the situation in Wessex is complicated.
In just eight months in 838, the kingdom's coastal villages had been plundered many times. The attackers could only be Danes who came across the sea. Although they were just stragglers, the kingdom's army was just about to counterattack every time. When they arrived at the attack site, all they saw were corpses strewn about and the remains of the farm burned to only ashes.
But now! A large Danish army has rushed to the southeastern peninsula of Britain and landed in the Celtic Kingdom of Cornwall.
The leader of this army is none other than the Danish Thorgis. He and his brothers stole a corner of Ireland a few years ago and built a fortress named Dublin. So what are the options for the Danish people who are unwilling to support the new Danish King Horik and are unwilling to fight with him? They can become Norwegians, they can immigrate to the Viking Kingdom of York, or they can defect to Thorgis in Dublin.
As the Viking Kingdom of York expands in strength, Thorgis's strength is also growing rapidly!
Sorgis saw an opportunity, and more than forty longships carried a thousand people from Dublin to the Celtic Kingdom of Cornwall.
The Cornish people were a Romanized Celtic people who tried their best to resist the invasion across the sea.The Wessex people, facing a brand new invader from the sea, had no chance of fighting on two fronts. In line with the principle of joining if you can't beat him, the King of Cornwall actually reached an alliance with Thorgis. Both sides have their own demands. The Danes want wealth, and the Cornish want to regain their land. The two sides organized a coalition force of up to 3,000 people to march to the border village of Hunston. Egbert, who learned that the king of Wessex was good at taking baths, hurriedly commanded the elites of the country to rush to the southeastern border.
A battle between the Wessexians and the Danish-Celtic coalition is inevitable!
But all this has no immediate significance for the Russians, and even the Russians lack understanding of the Kingdom of Wessex itself.
Ross's Sorgon ship can enter and exit uninhabited territory. After crossing the Denmark Strait, it goes straight to Hunter Bay in central Britain, enters the River Ouse to contact the British kingdom, takes away the tribute and sails away.
Everything goes well with this tribute in the past years, and Spuyut will also bring news about King Biyongni and his brother Floki.
There is also information about the situation of the Northumbrian crown prince Ella and the situation of the Mercian nobles.
Because the situation in 838 AD is very special, the Russians will officially announce something to the Mercian nobles - the orthodox princess Mary gave birth to a boy, and gave the pope a Christian name. The boy named Reglaf was the sole heir to the throne of Mercia.
The original plan was for the royal pirate and great explorer Si Puyute to announce the news in person. Spyut does not have to meet the Mercian nobles, he only needs to inform the "Broken Arm King" of Northumbria about the news. If this guy is still alive...
These are all for later. Talked.
There is only one target for the Ross coalition - Godfrey Hagen.
The Ross fleet in a diamond-shaped array has only one large ship. Even those standard armed cargo ships have much higher decks than traditional long ships. They are obviously smaller ships. It depends. Compare with whom. Compared with traditional long ships, even armed cargo ships are bigger.
The rowing boats suspended by ropes on the sides of the main ships, and the sailing cruisers such as the Aurora, can be unloaded with eight small boats and can transport eighty people to the beach at one time.
Yes, Rurik expected that he was going to land on the beach!
Because Ragnar’s intelligence indicates that he has a good understanding of the geographical overview of Godfrehagen.
"After all, he is a ruthless person who has been in Frank for many years, and he is very particular about building fortifications."
Godfreyhagen is a political city, and her The core is the so-called "palace" of the Danish king. King Horik was burdened with original sin, and the surrendered leaders also understood that this man became king with the support of the Franks. He was afraid that the lords would form a coalition to rebel, so he still created the "Priest of Odin" and continued to bleed the God King with the blood of slaves, so as to continue to swear that he was still a warrior of Odin, thereby stabilizing his willfulness.
He is also building a walled "palace""Temple", as well as a walled city.
It was a camp built on a stone hill along the coast, and the core area was a large military camp. The brothers who had been fighting with him for many years completely occupied the territory of the Robard tribe. , men got married on the spot and began to have children. A large number of Robards relied on this group of outsiders. A prosperous city was developing, and other institutions affiliated with the city were also born, such as the shipbuilding workshop standing at the city port. .
Godfrehagen, who is still living in a wide field of view, is indeed the place where Spyutsogon ships must pass. The information he provides is completely consistent with Ragnar’s information, so Rurik had to think about siege warfare from the beginning.
Can wooden walls stop the Russians?
The ships have torsion slingshots that can be quickly disassembled. It is an excellent siege weapon.
Even a siege weapon was dismantled into parts and placed in the cabin of the Avora.
The Ross fleet was fierce. Rushing to the Oresund Strait, which is part of the Denmark Strait, this sea area is also quite familiar to Rurik.
The flagship raised the skull and crossbones flag with black stripes on a white background, which was a signal to prepare for battle.
< p>The soldiers standing on the bow of the flagship ship then informed the other ships with flags, and the final order was spread to all ships."Brothers, be ready, polish your swords, prepare your shields, and bring your shields." To Yuya, we are about to land! "Every ship was passing on this news, and the soldiers in the cabin rushed to the deck singing and laughing.
Everyone saw a large city, with a wooden tower standing on a low stone hill. The building complex is surrounded by walls, and there are a large number of low thatched houses under the stone hills.
The tall wooden houses have a Frankish style, and there are a large number of thatched houses in the area outside the wooden walls. , it’s a rather traditional longhouse.
But traces of the Russians have already appeared, and black smoke is unusually burning on the coast.
“What is that? ! "Rurik asked Ragnar next to him.
"It doesn't seem like an accidental fire, I'm afraid our enemies have been prepared. "
"Is it Fengsui? Creating smoke as an alarm? "
Ragnar didn't know the inside story in this regard, so he could only nod. He was a little nervous and said: "Brother, if they make preparations, we are very likely to encounter their cavalry. "
"Cavalry? Frankish cavalry? Are you afraid of them? "
"Me? "Ragna laughed rudely to cover up his embarrassment. He was embarrassed to say that he was really afraid of cavalry, so he said: "At least you Russians are definitely not afraid. I have seen you use these heavy weapons to kill Frankish cavalry as easily as an ax can chop through a small tree. ”
Arik is not on the flagship. If he were present, he would not hesitate to review last year’s Bremen war record. The so-called Ross bow array defeated the Frank cavalry.
< p>Aric described the incident well, and "The Chronicle of Bremen" also served as a major newNews is printed on paper as a public publication and posted on the bulletin board in the square for the public to watch.Rurik was not afraid of the Danish cavalry, and the landing site he chose did not seem to be a place where the cavalry could easily stretch.
He drew his sword and pointed it directly at Godfrey Hagen's port: "No matter how many there are, we will rush to the port. Now we are ready to release the boat, and the soldiers are also ready to anchor. We Don't waste too much time and try to catch the enemy off guard."
The soldiers on the deck received orders one after another, and Ragnar also received orders, but he was slightly worried: "Do we still have a chance to make a surprise attack?"
"I hope so." Rurik was also a little nervous. He still felt that he still had too few soldiers on hand. He simply said sincerely: "I am not ready for a decisive battle with Horik, but I really don't want to let go of this opportunity. It would be best for him to personally lead his troops to fight with our army. Ragnar, I hope you will kill him by then." That evil man’s head.”
It was really encouraging. Ragnar patted Rurik’s shoulder deeply with a tight mouth. A look is worth a thousand words. He also went down to prepare, and gave orders from his voice to the men on the nearby fleet.
This is the revenge of the Danish Stonewall tribe, and also the revenge of a large number of Danish exiles.
From their point of view, Godfreyhagen is not the capital of Denmark at all. It is a city of sin, and the flag with the raven pattern flying in the city is simply ridiculous.
The Ross coalition was as powerful as a rainbow, with steel swords flashing with cold light, and crossbows and short wooden bows at the ready.
Especially the arrangement of the torsion slingshots by the Russian army. According to the order of the semaphore, all the slingshots installed on the starboard side of all the ships in the army were removed. These unloaded slingshots do not participate in fire support, but are directly transported to small boats with small trolleys, and then directly transported to the shore as land warfare weapons.
Look!
The frantic escape of the Danish fishing boats disappeared from sight, and the entire Godfrehagen port was in chaos. After the fishing boats fled into the harbor in large numbers, they chose to wash up on the beach. The frightened fishermen had no control over their catch and ran away with the soft and easy-to-carry fish. Let the battle go to hell!
This is an eye-opener for everyone. They see the provocative passing of Ross ships every year, and they hate the blue and white striped jib. Today is extraordinary. A large number of large ships are in the port. The sinister jibs are like the taunt of monsters. There are a large number of clearly visible armed personnel. They are the Russian army! They were clearly planning to launch an armed raid on Godfrey Hagen!
Chaos descended on the seaport, and ordinary people of the Robard tribe were fleeing. Because Horik was not their elected leader, the Robards were in alliance with this group of people who had returned from the Frankish territory, but they only respected Horik as their leader.
Only those men from the Robard tribe who took advantage of Horik decisively took up arms to fight for their monarch.
As early as the first beacon lit up black smoke, the black smoke was like dominoes.Like this, the message was passed all the way to Godfrehagen.
Horik was in the city. He thought that today would be another ordinary sunny day, and that there would be no major events throughout the day, but the black smoke was clearly visible.
"Maybe it's a misunderstanding?" He set up the black smoke warning system. Thinking that at this time, the hateful Ross ship passing through the strait like a lone wolf will not come, maybe this is One of the guards accidentally lit a firewood pile filled with cow dung, causing thick smoke and causing trouble.
However, he still ordered the elite soldiers within the city walls to remain on alert. Although there was no definite information about the enemy attack for the time being, it was necessary to remain vigilant, so the people outside the city walls were also partially mobilized.
Godfrehagen is not a big city. The city is the residence of Horik's elite troops and their families. Even though there are many people from the Robard tribe living here, these people are still a minority. Including women and children, there were more than 4,000 people in the city, and they were spread over a large area in the form of a big cake.
The port area is a densely populated area, and the lanes here are also quite complex.
The current port area is even more chaotic, because the fleeing people have parked the ships in a mess. No one will have any doubts at this moment. Regardless of whether Horik accepts it or not, a typical Ross army rushed over!
Standing on the wooden wall, Horik looked at the approaching fleet and felt that none of this was shown. His legs were shaking uncontrollably, and he finally controlled them with willpower.
"Brothers, it's an enemy attack! Let's go and fight! Rustand! Stad! Take your cavalry and get ready! I think the Russians are about to land, you rush over and drive them away Go to the sea!"
Although the two generals had doubts, they should obey the king's order.
Besides, their family members are also here, and the money they looted in the past is also here.
Especially Stud, who was ordered to take over Hedeby, which resulted in the outbreak of war. He cleared away the Russian forces in Hedeby and killed a large number of Russian warriors (mercenaries are equivalent to the Russian army), which was considered a meritorious service. But in the subsequent conflict with the Frankish Kingdom, the boy was also injured and almost died.
Studer still had some physical sequelae after recovering from his injury, but they were not visible when he was riding a horse. He wanted to perform meritorious service again, and he also felt that the incredible massive invasion of the Russians was directly related to the fact that he had killed about a hundred of their soldiers before.
On the way back to the stables, General Rustand heard the news pessimistically: "You have killed the Russians, do you know their strength? We did not do well at all for their massive invasion this time. Get ready, I'm worried..."
"Don't be afraid." Stud, who was walking with a limp, cheered up: "I have killed a hundred of them, and I will kill a thousand of them this time. . It is difficult for us to defeat them at sea. As long as this group of people comes ashore, it is our cavalry’s world. Remember! No army can defeat Qibin on land. Only another cavalry can defeat it.”
With these words, Rustander's worries were relieved.