An unexpected encounter had unexpected results. The Ross cavalry won too easily, and everyone felt that the victory was inexplicable.
After all, the brothers had fought another encounter with the Frankish regular army at the beginning of the operation. The enemy was as hard as stone, but this time it was as soft as mud.
Is the man wearing the golden crown really King Ludwig of the Franks?
Fisk and his brothers have not met Ludwig in person, and now they can at least confirm that the captive is either rich or noble.
As long as you remove the clothes that this person is wearing to keep out the cold, you can see that this person is very well-dressed. The waist belt is inlaid with rubies, and the clothes are mostly soft fabrics, and there are elegant plush sheepskin to keep out the cold. The person's boots are very regular, and his breeches
Neat, of course this person has no underwear.
What surprised Fisk most was that this man owned a Ross steel sword.
This is not an ordinary Ross steel sword. First of all, it was indeed made by the great blacksmith Klavason. The materials used to make the steel sword are quite exquisite. Its bright white sword body is deliberately plated with gold patterns, and the hilt has rubies and gold.
And decorated with silver. It is a short sword, and its combat significance is far less than its decorative significance.
"Could it be that the swords we sell to the outside world can still be exported to the Franks? Have the Clavarson and Kawei families really sold such gorgeous swords to the outside world? How could it be obtained by a Frankish noble?"
Fisk pinched his beard and was puzzled. He could only wait for the captured man to regain his energy.
The corpses of men and horses were left hanging on the Roman road. The weather was sunny today, but the cold temperature quickly took away the remaining warmth of the corpses, and they were soon as cold as stone.
Therefore, Fisk ordered his men to meet the baggage troops in the rear during the cleaning of the battlefield. After informing each other of the situation, they took the captured trophies such as weapons and hurriedly left this unfortunate place.
After a while, a small group of cavalry returned, their Turkic horses with extremely strong manes tied not far away.
They brought axes and chopped the legs of the dead horses, tied them with ropes and dragged a large number of legs back.
There are not many opportunities to eat meat in the ice and snow. Although the taste of heavily bruised horse legs is far less than that of carefully slaughtered meat, what is available now is good to eat. Brothers are not picky. But when doing this, you must avoid being eaten by yourself.
The war horses see that although the breeds of horses are quite different, if the war horses have empathy and cause fear, future battles will be troublesome.
All this was said by the Pechenegs in the team, and the Russians and Slavs completely believed it.
At night, a large number of bonfires were lit in the snow campsites on the roadside.
People unloaded the seized pottery urns, shoveled the snow, boiled water, and then just cooked the wheat.
There are also brothers who put the horse meat in the hot water after boiling it, boiled the blood from the horse meat over a low fire, then put it on their own swords and put it on the flames of the campfire to smoke...
The forest was full of cavalry horses, and they were all relieved of their burdens to save their energy, and fed a large amount of oats to restore their physical strength.
Bonfires were also lit around the horses to give the hard-working horses life-saving warmth.
The snow in this area was melting rapidly due to the bonfire, and Fisk and his brothers also ate boiled wheat and barbecued meat here.
Even the physical fitness of the five captured Franks was recovering quickly.
The guy with the golden crown on his head had his arms tied behind his back, and he was led to the campfire. Fisk immediately sent someone holding a wooden bowl to stuff boiled wheat into his mouth.
He chewed instinctively, but the warrior stuffed horse meat into his mouth.
After a while, the man who was captured unconsciously while suffering from hunger and cold showed a huge improvement in his sluggish spirit.
He finally regained his consciousness, and when he saw the current situation, he was surprisingly free of shock and fear, and only let out a long sigh.
"Are you awake?" Fisk kicked the man with bad Frankish vocabulary and asked in Latin: "Can you speak Latin?"
"A little bit."
"Your identity? King of the Franks? Ludwig?"
"it's me."
Ludwig's answer was quite bland. He admitted this personally. The soldiers who were paying close attention to the situation all came over and were already laughing and celebrating.
The laughter of the Ross cavalry was the greatest ridicule to Ludwig, but this man showed no shame at all. Instead, he suddenly said shockingly: "I know you are Ross people. I really know the detailed identities of you people. Kill them."
I, let this end."
"What did you say? Speak slowly."
"Kill me." Ludwig looked at the flames with his eyes. Although his face was heated, his whole body was already disheartened.
"Why did I kill you?" Fisk smiled from ear to ear. "You are like a piece of gold. I want to dedicate you to our king. So, where is your army?"
It seemed that this guy didn't understand. Fisk had to ask "Where is your army" three times in a row.
Ludwig actually understood. He kept silent because he didn't want to mention his misfortune.
"Since you don't tell me, does that mean you have lost the battle? Maybe you have lost all your troops, and there is no need for me to communicate with you."
…
The next day, the Ross cavalry continued northward.
Of course Ludwig knew about this cavalry unit. A Russian cavalry unit once attacked the rear flank of the Franks and deliberately killed all the pack horses of the baggage carriages, causing the Franks' logistics costs to skyrocket.
Facing the instigator, Ludwig really couldn't bear to hate him, or maybe it was because he couldn't bear the pain of defeat and was disheartened.
A proud nobleman was now reduced to a prisoner. If the Catholic Church had not prohibited suicide, Ludwig would have drawn his sword and killed himself long ago.
He asked Fisk to kill him not out of anger, but because he really hoped so.
Fisk was just a general. He had no idea about politics. He always applauded King Rurik's decisions and then followed his orders. Therefore, after confirming Ludwig's identity, he was too lazy to ask anything else and only thought about leading.
The army completed its mission.
The cavalry finally reached the Weser River, and across the river were the ruins of Bremen.
What is shocking is that there are large-scale ablation marks here, and as far as the eye can see are broken walls and ruins. The brothers know that this is a glimpse of the war, but the burn marks are too new.
Only stone piers remained on the bridge, and the Weser River was completely frozen.
This year is a rare cold year. For the old Russian people who have to face the frozen sea every year, the brothers do not think the scene in front of them is novel. They even hope that there will be a glacier leading straight to the north, just like the brothers in the hinterland of the Kingdom of Rus,
The frozen Volkhov River, Lake Ladoga, and the Neva River can be used as thoroughfares, because the frozen waters are extremely flat, allowing travelers to move forward quickly without restraint.
"Be careful, this is the south. Be careful that the ice is not strong enough! Take care to protect our silver coins!"
Fisk directed the cavalry to cross the river, and everything went smoothly.
But after crossing the river, they passed through Bremen after the fire, and saw a lot of strange dead branches here.
No! Those were not dead branches. They were the bones of people who had been burned black. Fiske thought that when they passed through Bremen, the wooden bridge had not been destroyed. Now, the wooden bridge was gone, and Bremen had added a huge amount.
Corpse.
It can be seen that a big battle was fought here, and it must have been caused by Arik's squadron.
The cavalry and navy who were ordered to go south all achieved great results. Thinking about it, Fisk still feels that his results are the most legendary and glorious.
He asked again: "Keep an eye on the Frankish King and don't let him freeze to death!"
He especially asked the young Brody Haraldsson, who had made great achievements. "Brody! It's you! Watch your prisoners carefully and present them to the king. You will also be a war chief in the future."
"That's natural." Brody replied arrogantly with his chin almost facing the scorching sun.
The war gave countless people opportunities. Brody's father, Harald, was the first wave of old Russians to move to New Roseburg that year. Harald's family was just the most ordinary member of the old Russian tribe, and Harald himself was
The fisherman was also a war. He seriously lacked the courage to fight and his physical fitness was not good. Only then did he respond to the order of Old Otto, who was still the chief at the time, and immigrate to New Roseburg to open up wasteland.
Twelve years have passed! The young son has grown up. It is entirely because he does not want to shame the old Rus people, the highest level people group in the Rus kingdom, that he puts his son Brody into the newly formed cavalry.
.
In the end, Brody did not bring shame to the tribe, but instead achieved great glory.
Passing through the ruins of Bremen, the subsequent road has been very smooth.
To their surprise, the smooth Roman roads began to become more and more winding, and a large number of frozen corpses began to appear on the road.
The soldiers saw the white-downed snow fox eating the corpse. When the fox saw someone coming, it ran away.
As more and more frozen corpses were found, Fisk was absolutely certain that the Frank army had been completely defeated.
Finally, they passed a forest wooden fort, with the Ross flag flying on the fort.
The morale of the soldiers was floating, and Fiske urgently ordered: "Everyone, show our flags to make sure there is no misunderstanding."
They found some wooden sticks or captured short spears, hung up a small area of Russian flags, and the cavalry passed through the fortress in a grand manner to meet the oncoming warriors.
In this way, the cavalry team, which was already in a constant state of fighting abroad, suddenly appeared. What Fisk received was not a welcome from friendly forces, but an inexplicable ridicule.
"Where did you go? You completely missed the decisive battle."
"Brothers are already killing people like crazy, but you are wandering in a fugue. Just wait for the king to get angry!"
…
The words made Fisk seem to have done something wrong, and he immediately retorted: "Is this the enemy's fortress? You have been living here. Now you take a good look at my team, and I tell you, all the sacks carried by the horses,
There are all shiny silver coins inside. The king will not criticize me harshly, he will only praise me. And..."
He originally wanted to talk about the Ludwig he captured, but now he thinks about it.
The cavalry chose to speed up because they were already very close to the frozen Elbe River.
However, it is said that after the war, the coalition forces cleaned up the battlefield on the ice. All the Vikings who died in the battle were cremated, and the ashes of the deceased were collected in categories as much as possible, only to be buried in the "Hermon Valhalla" cemetery in New Roseburg.
.
The Vikings from multiple ethnic groups formed a coalition. Under the command of Rurik, they had the best equipment and fighting skills, and the coordination of various arms was as good as possible. They came well prepared, and Rurik also successfully predicted the enemy.
Due to Commander Ludwig's tactics, the Viking army suffered very few losses, but the overall coalition army still suffered 3,500 deaths.
Some died directly in battle, and some died of serious injuries afterwards. Most of the dead were Saxon peasant soldiers who lacked training. It is undeniable that the battle was largely a revenge battle for the Saxon ethnic group's "blood debt" and consisted of refugees from various villages.
The Saxon army fought like mad dogs, with inferior equipment but no fear of sacrifice.
They indeed paid a very shocking loss, but surprisingly no one paid attention to this on the battlefield. Because Ludolf, Duke of Saxony, a descendant of the great hero Vidukind, continued to fight even though he was wounded, and the heroic behavior of the soldiers was recognized by the saints of the Northern Church.
Eskil endorsed that this war has unparalleled sacred significance.
The hatred between the country and the family, the blessing of faith, and even a very simple logic that "once we are defeated, we will be retaliated and exterminated by the Franks", the Saxons won with a mortality rate of 30%, together with their Viking allies.
It wasn't until they won the battle that they finally realized the horrific losses they had suffered. It's scary to think about it.
On the side of the defeated, stripped Frank armor and ordnance were piled up in mountains, and all their logistical supplies were also seized.
The French army was so completely defeated that they didn't even have a chance to survive as prisoners.
The ice and woodland were littered with Frankish corpses, and the corpses had to be disposed of even though they were stiff.
How to deal with the enemy's dead bodies is a problem, but our own dead must be dealt with properly.
As the victor, Duke Liudolf of Saxony would never bother his allies to deal with the follow-up matters for him. He still had nearly a thousand previously captured Frankish people on hand, and now these people just brought tools to dig holes in the snow.
Liudolf chose a relatively soft soil area in the main part of Hamburg to design a cemetery for the war dead.
The bodies of the Saxons who died in battle should have been washed and put on decent clothes according to tradition and Catholic etiquette, then wrapped in linen and placed in wooden coffins made of planks, and buried in the dug pit. This
This process must be witnessed by priests throughout the city and a passage of scripture must be recited in Latin.
In special circumstances, things had to be done simply. The prisoners were forced to dig some straight trenches, and the war dead were directly laid flat in them and then filled in collectively. Then a large number of wooden crosses were placed on the ground.
Eskil had been witnessing the burial process. He was in a very bad mood. Coupled with the cold weather, he fell seriously ill and now had to stay in Hamburg to recuperate.
He even felt that his illness was a punishment from God, because this war could have been avoided. As a saint, instead of preventing the war, he induced the decisive battle to break out.
Liudov did not feel at all that he was guilty in the slightest. The Franks would rather go on a winter expedition for the sake of war. This kind of militaristic behavior was seeking death.
They all died after begging for mercy, and as a victor, Liu Doufu was determined to give the enemy who died in battle the last dignity.
If the Russians were cleaning the battlefield, these corpses would be thrown on the ice and ignored. When the ice melted and the snow melted, the corpses would sink into the river and be naturally washed to the ocean to feed fish. There was no need to collect the corpses for the enemy.
If you are really full of hatred for the enemy, chop off the head of the dead body and make the skull into a drinking bowl.
Whether it was water burial or cremation, both were against the Catholic faith. Even if they were enemies, they had the same faith. Liu Dou did not dare to act recklessly, so he had to dig a huge tomb to bury the dead body.
This is a huge project. Every day after the war, people would throw out the corpses that were fused to the ice, and then transport the dead bodies like lumps of ice to the prepared pits...
When Fisk's cavalry arrived at the frozen Elbe River, this was what they saw.
There are an astonishing number of corpses on the surface, and some people are hauling the corpses away. The battlefield still maintains the appearance of the fierce battle. These cold ruins silently tell the fierceness of the battle.
Fisk couldn't help but think of the taunts from friendly forces.
"Ah! I really missed the final battle."
His face was trembling, and he then ordered: "Brothers, let's cross the river quickly! Go to our camp outside the city, let's go!"
They began to march on the ice, even deliberately walking close to the remains of the battlefield. Ludwig's arms were still tied, and even his feet on the saddle were tied with hemp rope to ensure that he had no way to escape. Here is
He closed his eyes and refused to look at the place that broke his heart. He simply pressed his whole body against the horse's neck and buried his whole face in the thick mane.
The figure of the cavalry is too conspicuous. It is a behemoth with horses whose weight has swelled to four white horses! This is a horse team that is a mixture of multiple horse breeds, but it carries a large amount of supplies and it makes it look like a large caravan.
Since Hanukkah is not far away and it is also the Saxon Christian Christmas, people from all walks of life around Hamburg are busy celebrating the festival.
A few months ago, Rurik fantasized about a triumphant return to Novorosberg and a festival in the capital to welcome the year 841.
Now, he can only spend the holidays in the Principality of Saxony.
Based on the tradition of Rus, a wooden tower made mainly of straight pine wood has begun to be built. It must become a burning torch to burn out the past year and usher in the new year while burning. The Danish puppet was captured and made into a human pig.
King Horik must be reduced to ashes in this ritual.
The northern saint Eskil and Duke Liudolf of Saxony had no objection to this matter, or in other words, no one had any objection. Even though Horik had converted, the fact that he repeatedly jumped around in faith made Eskil
I was extremely disgusted.
If King Rurik was asked to be lenient because Horik was a Christian, even if he was beheaded rather than burned to death, Eskil had no face to plead, and it was really unnecessary.
On the contrary, after Eskil, Liudov, and the captured Baudouin joined forces, the three of them jointly sentenced Horik to death.
Even Count Baudouin of Flanders wanted Horik to go quickly. Even this guy once wanted to win the title of Count of Flanders and really took over a large area of land. Baudouin's family is indeed ruthless.
When the Ross army invaded his own territory and he was defeated and captured, Baudoin also hated Horik and took the opportunity to call for the death penalty. By the way, this act was also to flatter Rurik, King of Ross.
Baudoin was such a versatile figure. Facing the defeated East Frankish army, he had to reconsider his position. He even considered being a vassal of Duke Liudolf of Saxony, which objectively could indirectly gain access to various Normans.
People's military protection. As for those who hate, his standards of dealing with things are the same as those of his fathers and grandfathers, very flexible.
So the northern saint Eskil set up a simple Northern Church Inquisition and sentenced Horik to be a heretic. In this way, this person is a heretic and a traitor to Odin. Burning him to death is no different in all aspects.
Everything was settled, Rurik was busy preparing for the festival, educating his de facto eldest son Reglaf, and doting on his two newborn younger sons.
The coalition forces were busy resting and counting the spoils of war.
Rurik still had a concern in his heart. There was still no news about the cavalry he sent out. Where did they go?
Until this day, the appearance of the cavalry attracted the attention of thousands of people. They were too conspicuous walking on the ice.
Rurik also listened to the report from his subordinates, and when he stood on the wall of Hamburg, he couldn't help but feel happy.
"This is my cavalry? Where did they get so many horses? Ah! It's them!"
Rurik hurriedly got off the city wall, walked to the frozen riverside surrounded by many soldiers, and went to personally greet the long-missing cavalry subordinates who looked very conspicuous in sunglasses...