Rise of Rurik

They seemed to have a grudge against everything. The axe smashed the wooden chairs of the monastery, and they chopped the stone walls everywhere, and it seemed that they could find the mezzanine to get the gold.

Those who broke into the monastery first had more or less some silver and gold, but most still did not hunt what they hoped.

Most of the Vikings had to scavenge for bodies, taking boots and belts. Even the black robes and black shawls of the priests were plucked, and the corpses were discarded.

More than 100 people searched everywhere, and they reached the far southeast of the monastery. They saw some stone tablets standing here, and they took it for granted that it was a tomb.

"Brothers, there must be gold and silver in the grave, let's dig it!"

Someone started, and people from all walks of life began to tear down the stone monument, and began to dig with the shovel they found, and even their hands.

However, all they found was a rotting wooden coffin and a pile of bones.

Instead, they found the silver ring and the cross from the phalanx of the bones.

They even destroyed the tomb of St. Cuthbert's bishop, just like the monastery he built on his own site, vandalized by barbarians from the sea.

Even those who didn't get enough wealth, looked at the smiling faces of the guys who got gold and silver, they were envious and said hatred aimed at the monastery itself.

Finally someone started arson!

The so-called holy water, it is more appropriate to say that it is holy oil. It is actually an essential oil extracted from roses, so the holy water has a strong floral fragrance, which is believed to have the power to cleanse the filth. The monastery reserves a lot of such rose oil, and it is also regarded as a kind of medicine, so the monastery is also known as "the place of healing".

But these holy oils have become arson.

Rurik and his men found some parchment books other than the Gospels in the confusion.

Books, or record books, are actually written in Latinized Old Saxon, and are the record books of monastery events and details of the monastery's rules and regulations.

Another batch of letters was also seized.

The chaos at the monastery forced Rurik to evacuate, and the ten books and documents he needed were taken outdoors.

He held a piece of parchment in both hands,

Looking at the dense text, I couldn't help shaking my head.

"What does it say? Paul."

"A letter from the king, a compliment to the monastery, and..."

Suddenly, Paul's eyes widened and he hurriedly said, "My lord! It's..."

"what exactly is it?!"

"It's a letter from the king. The king is coming to Mass on the fifteenth of this month."

"A great festival?" Rurik asked.

"The Ascension of Our Lady is a big festival."

"It's really amazing." Rurik hurriedly received the letter, looked at the smoking monastery again, and shook his head sullenly. "It seems that the king is going to be disappointed. However, I can also attack him."

"Ah! Your lord...you. That's not good."

"What's wrong? Do you think you're a sinner by doing things for me?"

"This..." Paul's hesitation explained everything.

Rurik said bluntly with a blank face, "In Northumbria, you are just a lowly serf. You and the nobles are not both the Lord's lamb, how can they be noble? You are lowly? I will not take you away. Faith. Take these holy books back, but I want to keep them well. Don't you understand your current situation?"

Paul heard enough hints and said silently, "The king will definitely come with the kingdom's elite army."

"Elite! I play the elite. This is the real honor."

Paul really didn't know how to evaluate this young man. He was rational, wise, and knew the value of holy books, but he was also crazier than those barbarians.

Attack the king? How arrogant this is. He knew he had no way out...

Lindisfarne Abbey still has a lot of wooden structure, and the smoke from its wonderful spires has grown worse, and finally the red flames are rising into the sky.

With all kinds of things they grabbed, the Viking army hurriedly fled the monastery. As for the dead, they were naturally buried in the monastery.

People walked across passages that were about to be submerged by high tide, and they retreated to the coast, to camps beside the ship's moorings.

Only a dozen people in the army had sprained their arms and bruised their skin in the chaos, and they returned with few casualties.

The beach is full of people sitting, some happy and some annoyed.

After all, this is really a robbery based on ability, and those who seize the opportunity will naturally get the most. For example, Geiger of Washoeby, he caught a lot of Frankish silver coins, and since the Floki brothers were also involved, he agreed to give it to the chief family and to Biyonni.

The leaders of the various clans gathered together to communicate with each other about their achievements today.

It is true that some people complained that some people showed off, and the excited Biyonni boasted of great glory. He slapped his chest and boasted of capturing and beheading a big man, and also made fun of Rurik's obsession with the parchment.

"My Rurik brothers say that the writing is the most precious! The Russ are indeed a little different from us, and perhaps that is very precious indeed."

After all, everyone laughed.

Laughing and laughing, those who did not make a fortune continued to shout, "I want to continue fighting! I want to go to the south to continue exploring."

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Someone immediately echoed, "Lord Rurik's prisoner, didn't he say that there is Bamburg in the south? It's a city. We can fight over it, and everyone can make a fortune."

Hearing about the opportunity to make a fortune, everyone ignores that their ships may no longer be able to carry more treasures. People are greedy, and who would despise the wealth they have obtained?

The people became interested, and they stared at Rurik.

"You don't laugh at me anymore? You want to listen to my opinion again?" Rurik deliberately scolded.

"I'm sorry, brother," Biyonni asked. "What do you think if we attack that Bamburgh."

"Not so much. Since you've chosen war. Guys! I like war too. Now I've learned something big."

"What's the matter?"

Rurik tensed his face: "You are busy robbing gold and silver, a letter I have seized. I learned that the festival is approaching in this kingdom, and the king himself is coming to the monastery."

"Is it a sacrifice?" Biyonni immediately became vigilant.

"Exactly. So, we can kill them. We have the potential to fight their strongest army and get a lot of treasure."

Suddenly someone patted their chest: "Why do you have to hesitate? My people haven't grabbed many treasures, and I won't go back if I can't make a fortune!"

"Then fight! Fight them upright! Odin hopes so, this is our destiny." Biyonni's shouting resonated with everyone, and Rurik didn't say anything anymore.

Although he didn't know what would happen, Rurik estimated that the kingdom of Northumbria could be smashed into a Danfa area. Coupled with the recent war, the armament and national strength of this kingdom would definitely be unbearable for Fira.

The strongest army? The King's Guard?

Then set up a line on this beach and have a decisive battle with the king's army!

Although they are not the elite Ross Army, they are warriors carefully selected by the Balmers.

Because of the capture of these people's victories, the once very simple personal weapons and equipment have been improved a lot.

The King of Northumbria will surely come. Rurik vaguely remembered that it was the legend that the king here killed Ragnar, which led to the onslaught of the Viking army. Is that king's name Ella?

No, Ella is probably still a youth or even a teenager.

It didn't matter who the king's name was, and neither did the other warriors. Maybe it's not good to relax too much, but they are not from Rus, and Rurik knows that he can only mobilize those family leaders and force ordinary soldiers to do something, which is really inappropriate.

People started building their own camps, and a sudden rain made the world bleak.

The rain extinguished the fire of the monastery, and the messy courtyard was prohibitive. The Vikings had to hide in the old barracks under occupation, huddled together in wooden huts and waited for the weather.

The rain continued for two days, and the land was still muddy. It is not enough for people to eat only wheat. They began to use boats to fish for fish. They also carried captured bows and arrows and went to hunt in the woods.

The fifteenth day is getting closer and closer, and it seems that the threat of war is also approaching.

They don't prepare for battle, and Rurik can slack off.

Because of in-laws and personal friendships, Rurik was able to mobilize a total of 300 people from Biyonny and Guyger.

Fighting should not be a group fight based on personal use of force. Since a large number of spearheads were captured, Rurik simply trained the group to form a long-haired team.

The spearheads were tied with new wooden poles, and three hundred people formed a spear team. When the team was training, Rurik also sent Yevlo to simply train the group in two movements, nothing more than walking in a group with spears, and obeying orders and spearheading the outside world.

He knew that Bruce of Scotland, with a group of barefoot farmers, with a large number of so-called spears made of mere sharpened oak, stabbed the English mail cavalry in a suitable field.

Compared to those farmers, these Balmers have a clear sense of teamwork. Moving the shield wall is a good thing, and changing it to a spear is the same as a spear pushing.

What is different from the emergency training here is that other Vikings either watch the show lazily or go hunting for fish.

Some people even ran far away to try to find wild boars to kill in a crowd, only to encounter Northumbria's riding scouts!

In the encounter on the forest trail, two scouts were besieged, one was killed and the other was captured.

The neatly dressed soldiers immediately cleaned up their equipment, and after being beaten again, they were taken away by the Vikings barefooted and single-clothed like prey.

As for the two rare riding horses, they were taken away.

The prisoners were brought before Rurik, a situation that caused the whole camp to fry.

Many people believe that war is coming, and imagine that a large army is coming. They were not afraid at all, but they felt that they were a group of idiots who gave gold and silver to the neck and were killed.

Rurik has "translator" Paul by his side. After a few days of contact, this Paul has been forced to learn some Norse vocabulary. This is not difficult, because Old Saxon and Norse have so much in common.

Hearing that he was beheaded and roasted by the guys while riding a horse, Rurik felt speechless and didn't want to ask more about it.

He was directly interrogating the prisoners surrounded by many family leaders. This trembling man had no integrity and directly confessed important news.

The so-called king of Northumbria, Iron Reid, will personally come to the monastery to participate in the festival. The king's trip is all about ostentation. In addition to a group of capable guards, he also has to bring a group of treasures and attendants.

The clan chiefs were ecstatic, and Rurik had to be especially vigilant.

Someone shouted: "Haha, their king has arrived in Bamburgh. We killed this most honorable man to show Odin our strength."

"Yes! This is the greatest honor."

"I can't wait, I'm going to kill a hundred enemies."

Even more appealed: "We're wasting our energy here, we're rowing for Bamburgh. Kill them for riches!"

But there are also leaders who are more prudent, because they don't want to suffer too much loss. If they can fight more and less, they will naturally insist on doing so.

The head of the family hoped that Biyonni, who had the most troops, would come up with one, and Biyonni and Guyger called out that Rurik was the master in this regard.

The captives were pulled down, and their people were thought to have lost their value and were directly beheaded.

Rurik, after all, has experience in commanding battles, and the Balmers believe this is not bragging.

He stood up and faced everyone: "You heard it, they have cavalry! I advise you to be more vigilant, but I am also prepared."

However, Rurik's words are like playing the harp to the ox, only because those who do not know the strength of the cavalry at all.

Of course, Rurik cannot say that he is experienced in this regard. He has not personally played the cavalry team, and all his knowledge of cavalry can be regarded as a piece of paper. A spear formation against an infantry and an extra cavalry would also work, he hoped.

Rurik continued to shout, "Let's not talk about the cavalry. Their king has been until we occupied the monastery, which is the message of the former escapees."

This remark made some people dismissive and sneered, "Should we be afraid of cowards? Why? Even if they gather people, I will fight them here, and I will cut off a hundred heads."

People were talking and laughing again, and optimism pervaded the camp.

This is simply a red flag, but what is the enemy's specific strength and armament? Rurik couldn't trust the prisoner's words too much.

After all, as the prisoners said, there were 2,000 people, so what kind of force is this?

Rurik did not believe that Northumbria quickly assembled a regular infantry of two thousand men. Britain in this age was nothing more than lords and capable servants leading a group of peasants to war, and the battlefield would be filled with sickles, dung, and forks. Only a very small number of cities are guarded by standing troops with decent equipment. However, these city defenders have proved their frailty with inferior combat.

Rurik was the only one who was wary of the cavalry team. If you think about it carefully, there must be not many cavalry in the kingdom.

As long as you deal with the cavalry well, those farmers and the standing soldiers that are better than the farmers are all forgot.

Reason told Rurik not to take it lightly, but the more he thought about it, the more he looked down on the enemy.

A thousand strong Viking men who take pride in killing the enemy, and two thousand armed farmers with agricultural tools, who wins?

Full of confidence, Rurik sat down again. "We'll just wait. There may be two thousand enemies, maybe more."

"Then kill them all. We can kill ten of them alone." One person shouted confidently.

Biyonni nodded, "Indeed, we still have some powerful weapons. We may have killed 2,000 enemies in Edinburgh and here, and we have lost less than 100 people so far. Kill 2,000 of them with less loss."

According to Biyonni, killing an enemy is so easy. Everyone thought so, and Rurik could only agree.

Knowing the basic information of the enemy, Rurik and the people he could directly mobilize began to actively arrange the battlefield.

Guyger and Biyonny were the most stable, and Rurik persuaded the hundred fishermen in Shetland, saying, "You just want to get rich and don't want to go all out. You should stand behind my line with bows and arrows, and you must I will give each of you a silver coin after the war, and the peace and kindness of our Rus people in the future. You are also qualified to clean up the battlefield after the war. "

The people of Shetland really do take their lives, and if they really were to be Bergen's warriors, they wouldn't have emigrated to the islands. They are indeed afraid of head-to-head combat, and it is a good thing to be archers.

Rurik wanted to replicate the battle at Gotland, but on a much smaller scale.

He started to stack the platforms with wood on the offshore flat ground, and then piled them up suddenly to make ramps. Ten torsion slingshots were densely placed on five platforms with a height of only about one meter, and their height was just above the heads of the soldiers in front.

As a flexible and mobile weapon, the trebuchet can move freely by pulling the rope.

Ten trebuchets, ten slingshots, and nearly eighty bowmen, three hundred people with spears are the core of the battle, and when necessary, they threw their spears and brought their shields, and instantly became a classic dimension. Beijing Sword and Shield Hand.

All the family leaders could see clearly that Rurik of Ross did have the means, and the army was trained to be more rank.

But is this really what it is? The looming enemy is nothing but the farmer who comes to the rescue. Killing the peasant can only be the glory of victory. Only by beheading the king's guards and robbing the king's carriage can he obtain great wealth.

Rurik and the others decided to take it easy, and the other brothers would attack first and join the raid first. He always had a hunch that his expedition should not always be so smooth. Those clan leaders and their subordinates who did not follow their own instructions might suffer losses in future battles.