The steel swords and axes were polished and cleaned, and all the warriors put on armor.
The white robes sewn with blue strips of cloth have become riddled with holes after many battles. Many of the soldiers' robes were stained with pudding, and yesterday's attack was also stained with a lot of blood.
The clothes were washed by the river, and before they were completely dry, the soldiers put them on their chainmails.
In the early morning, when the sun was about to rise, the morning fog gradually filled the whole world, and the mountains on both sides of the river valley turned into lakes and lakes.
The temperature was quite cool, but as they began to set fires maliciously, smoke began to billow from the sacked town of Forkingas.
"Get on the boat quickly! Those who set the fire throw away the torches, let's go now!" The black fox standing on the boat continued to wear the too-tight armor, clapping his hands and calling.
The more than twenty arsonists were afraid that they would be left behind, so they ran back to the dock and jumped onto the boat in a panic.
The big oar slid hard, and the warriors shouting slogans drove the long boat quickly into the center of the river. A cable extended from the stern of the ship, and the other end was tied to the wooden pillars of the town wharf trestle. The strong force tore the wooden pillars apart, and many
The boats were working at the same time, and the entire dock was reduced to pieces of wood floating in the river. As for the captured boats, the Russian army really did not think that such small barges would be good tools. The bottoms of the boats were deliberately smashed, and all the barges sank.
In the Saar River.
Although it was a new operation with the trophies of the previous plunder, it was just that at this point, whether it was the barrels of wine or the captured female prisoners, everything was no longer necessary.
In the morning fog, the army had a hearty breakfast, including the accompanying Nassau and Koblenz militiamen.
Everyone ate a lot of wheat boiled in salt water, slaughtered all the cattle, sheep and poultry seized in the town, and everyone ate a lot of meat.
It was during this meal that the militiamen rarely ate a lot of salt. The sea salt the Russian army had on hand had a high potassium content. The militiamen didn't know why. They all felt full of strength now.
There is still another ten kilometers of navigation. The water speed in this section of the river is already very slow. With this length of channel, the fleet can reach it in about an hour at the fastest.
Vardy was very pleased with the current situation. He was sitting on the flagship in high spirits, and looked at the Black Fox eager to try without the slightest worry.
"The fog is helping us! The whole army rows quickly, and we fight as soon as we land."
"Huh? Are you talking to me?" From the corner of Black Fox's eyes, he saw the veteran talking non-stop.
"Who else could it be but you? This time, do you want to kill an enemy?"
"Hey, it's okay to kill one of them. Otherwise, I won't look like a noble."
Vardy didn't want to criticize such a young fat man for trying to kill an enemy. He would only kill someone if he had no choice. He thought of many things, especially the fact that six years ago, the Blue Fox who had not yet lost weight stabbed a man to death in Hedeby's panic.
enemy.
"You'll have a chance."
"Oh, you have to fight for the opportunity. I will seize the opportunity." Inadvertently, the black fox also tightened his grip on the hilt of the sword.
Vardy also noticed this from the corner of his eye, and said casually: "If we can catch the so-called Earl of Sal, you will execute him. How about it?"
"Oh? Very good. However, I heard that Frank has a saying that it is better if one noble does not kill another noble but keeps it for ransom."
"Forget it." Wadi laughed loudly: "Do you still believe this?"
"I don't believe it. We are still flying the Russian flag now, and we are the Russian army."
Suddenly, the black fox suddenly drew his sword, pointing directly at the sky where the fog was gradually dissipating: "Blood sacrifice to Odin!" He shouted three times in a row, which shocked the soldiers on the flagship to be excited, and everyone's innermost feelings were forcibly hidden.
The things were pulled out again, and in a moment everyone shouted, "This battle is a blood sacrifice to Odin."
The pure Viking army has been resurrected, and they look even more ferocious as they ride on long ships with decaying drike fangs on the bows.
The bucklers that were supposed to be placed on the side of the ship were now placed at the feet of the oarsmen. When they felt that they were approaching their destination, the crossbows of various styles were fully cocked.
Even the specially carried ten-seat torsion slingshot on board has been fully charged.
They no longer care that this will damage the durability of the weapon and cause weight loss. What the army wants is a decisive victory in the first battle!
However, the thick smoke from the burning town of Foklingas has long broken through the morning fog, and even a short-sighted person standing on the bridge in Sarabrücken can see that something big is going on to the west. It is completely the Saar River
The winding river is an elongated route, but in fact the distance between the two places is only six kilometers.
Although Baron Sal issued an emergency alert order, the entire stronghold has been on high-intensity military alert. How can we continue to be on alert? The knights and a large number of retinues listened to the words. What else can they do? It feels like the most
The right thing is to take things step by step. As for not drinking tonight? Just don’t drink.
Can a mere bandit make the Baron nervous? Perhaps it is not a bandit, but an attack by a small enemy force, with a more brutal approach that makes it look like banditry.
And this corresponds to the attitude of the entire Barony of Saar towards the residents north of the Rhine River.
Who are those people? A large number of residents are just those whom Charlemagne personally conquered militarily. Most of them are not noble Franks at all. Saxony, Thuringia, and Bavaria are all a group of savages. Only savages are good at doing things.
Barbaric things.
Baron Saar is a little confused, but his subordinates have helped his lord to find out the reason. Maybe the fire in the backyard was caused by a sneak attack by nobles loyal to Ludwig. This kind of thing is not unusual, after all, the autumn harvest is coming soon.
, the northern nobles might take the lead in taking action.
This group of vassals brainstormed and guessed a lot. To be fair, they guessed mostly right, but it was still too late.
All retinue soldiers, levied militiamen, and even local servants and women who helped wash clothes were required to be vigilant and prepare for possible battles.
If walking at night is asking for death, no soldier would dare to ride to Foklingas at night. Moreover, in the concept of the army, any action at night, even walking at night, is something that "should not be impossible" unless it is absolutely necessary.
.
The baron had already counted all the soldiers who could ride horses, and he organized a cavalry team of up to 200 people. Of course, some pack horses that were simply pulling wooden carts were pulled out and covered with a layer of leather as saddles. The soldiers who knew how to ride horses fought hard
If you sit on it, you will be considered a cavalry member, and the soldiers will not even have stirrups.
The only ones who can really fight are the retinues under his command and the few elites under the vassal knights.
If the civilians are also armed, Baron Saar can pull out an army of a thousand men in this little Sarabrücken!
The combat effectiveness of this same army depends on the more than 300 real soldiers in it. What about the combat effectiveness of the 300 soldiers? It depends on the performance of the more than 100 capable cavalry among them.
A stone fortress gave the baron great confidence. This was the commanding heights of the area. Even the height of the only tower of this fortress was only about eight meters.
There is no stone wall, but the granary area is surrounded by wooden walls. The granaries are built on a large number of wooden piles. All granaries have roofs, so they are rainproof and moisture-proof. At this moment, all the granaries are filled with grain, and some of them are shipped to the Kaiserslautern garrison.
of military rations.
Today is definitely not an ordinary morning, and the ordinary morning fog has become confusing.
Baron Wolfgang of Saar is standing high on the stone tower. His eldest son Hubert has just grown up. Today, like his father, he is wearing a chainmail and an iron helmet and standing next to his father. His eyes are as bright as his father's.
looking to the west.
"Father, there is really a fire over there. The gangsters have really appeared. I have to kill several enemies. If they run wild in our territory, they must die!" The young man bared his teeth like a little wolf.
Wolfgang, as his father, was very pleased that his eldest son was like this. But fighting is fighting, and his son still needs experience when he has just reached adulthood. Although being brave and ruthless is something that every Frankish male noble must master, he felt that his son was too immature.
"Don't be impulsive. We are standing in an absolutely safe place. Look below." The baron pointed casually.
"The knights are gathering their soldiers."
"And my personal soldier, Hubert, when I meet God, you will inherit all this."
The words were a little unlucky, and it was strange that Hubert didn't think clearly when he spoke. "No! You will die in battle?!" He stared at his father in surprise: "You regard the battle as a battle to the death? We will definitely win.
"
"You are stupid, but you are indeed stupid!" Wolfgang was so angry that he slapped his son's helmet, and then continued to look at the west with contempt: "We will all die, I will die, and you... will die too. But not today.
The time has come for all the knights to prove their loyalty, look at their records! And you, my son. When I find out that the victory is determined, I will arrange for you to lead a team of people to fight hard. Remember, our family must get the highest
honor."
In fact, the knights were arranging lazily. Various horses were brought out from the stables. Many riders were still grooming their horses' manes and pushing fodder for feeding as usual.
The soldiers just started to assemble, and those with armor lazily put on their armor. As for the large number of simple civilians and conscripted militiamen, they only started to assemble in civilian clothes and carried a variety of weapons.
The women in the kitchen are cooking oats in a large number of pottery pots. The newly cooked oatmeal porridge has ten thousand people. Only the elite soldiers and knights want to eat the exquisite wheat bread!
Even elite soldiers cannot eat wheat bread all the time. Being able to eat this often means one thing - a big war is about to happen.
These Frankish soldiers were not really arranging troops when they gathered together. They gathered more and more in the open space on the right bank of the bridge (actually a material loading and unloading point). Everyone brought their own wooden bowls and started banging them out of boredom, just to urge the kitchen to start dinner early.
.
Sarabrücken seems noisy, but this noise is another kind of tranquility.
Many sleepy-eyed militiamen had just learned that there was going to be a war. They were very nervous at first, but now they saw everyone gathering together and chatting, making a rumble like the flight of wild bees.
Barbarians attacking the town? There is indeed thick smoke in the west. But what about the gangsters? Will they really appear? Do they really dare to come looking for death?
Everyone had different opinions, but their stomachs were growling, and everyone wanted to eat early. What's more, the Baron was so kind as to offer a meal early in the morning for the first time. The air was already filled with the rich aroma of boiled wheat, which made hundreds of people look forward to it.
The civilians are salivating. They know very well that whether they fight or not, they can fill their stomachs today based on their ability. This opportunity is rare only a few times a year.
But the distant and thick horn sound, like coming from hell, made all the noisy people hold their breath. They raised their heads and dug their ears, and finally realized that everything was true.
The morning fog is already very thin, and the Saar River here is almost purely east-west. Black Fox's Ross army is advancing towards the rising sun, and the soldiers squint their eyes.
The Russian army saw the real bridge and the so-called town of Sarabrücken. They were even more shocked by the large number of people gathered in the open space on the shore. Those reflecting the light were weapons and armor.
"Damn! We are really exposed! There will be a tough battle!" Black Fox said bitterly.
Vardy still had a straight face: "That's what I hope. In this way, the brothers can annihilate them directly."
"Then do it!" There was a clear buzzing sound from the blade, and the black fox drew out his sword.
The longships still formed a long snake formation. Different from the sailing formation, the team now became crowded. All the soldiers were not afraid of the enemy's large number of soldiers. Since they remembered that they were "Odin's warriors", they strive to sacrifice blood to Odin today.
Ding, everything seems to be like a god appearing, and the opportunity for blood sacrifice is right in front of you.
The sunlight made the entire fleet very conspicuous, especially the helmets with strong reflections. The veterans were the most sensitive to this. I don’t know who was the first to roar like a lion in the crowd: "Enemy!"
This was a clean and crisp sound, and the dumbfounded warriors had never seen a strange longship before. Their knowledge of the Normans was only some fantasy legends, and they could not imagine that what suddenly appeared in front of them was a Norman fleet.
The horn is still blowing, but it has turned into an attack horn.
The black fox held the sword. He knew very well that with his bloated body, he could not rush to the front line. The more powerful the attack, the more powerful soldiers he had to assemble. The assault force was led by Wadi himself, and there were many soldiers in one hand.
The "Suicide Squad" transformed into berserkers and took action immediately.
The long ship docked directly, and the Russian warriors in white robes jumped onto the land one after another, and immediately organized a loose shield wall and shouted for a charge.
Those who were still waiting for their meal were shocked. Unexpectedly, a group of guys landed and charged indiscriminately.
However, the defenders, who were in great chaos, were the first to suffer a round of missed arrows.
The longships were landing one after another, and all the warriors holding wooden-armed crossbows didn't pay much attention. They just threw an arrow into the air. The enemy's target was too obvious anyway.
The light arrow hit the head and face, and the arrow cluster was like a sharp needle without barbs. The unarmored militiamen were easily shot to death and injured, and some unlucky elites in chainmail were hit with arrows in the shoulder, thanks to the small gap in the iron ring.
, the arrow cluster did not penetrate deeply.
"It's unbelievable. They appeared too fast! Is this going to start a fight?!" Baron Sal, who was still standing at a high place, could not have imagined how quickly the situation would deteriorate.
Hubert, the eldest son, felt uncomfortable all over. He raised his broad-bladed sword high and yelled at his father: "What are our people doing?! I want to go down quickly and command these guys to fight! I want to fight."
After saying this, young Hubert was about to go downstairs quickly to start fighting, but he was grabbed by the baron.
"You come back first! Now is not the time. Let's see how the battle turns out!"
The knights, retinues, and militiamen were caught off guard by the arrows. It was harassment at best.
The militiamen were running around, and elite knights and retinues began to attack the oncoming people like a conditioned reflex.
"Forget about riding horses! My warriors! Follow me and charge!" A knight took the lead in charging with a broad-blade iron sword, and the followers received a strong spiritual encouragement.
The Russian army was not to be outdone, and as the torsion slingshots began to throw javelins one after another, the horrific killings began.
The Frankish garrison militiamen were stabbed down by javelins, and then began to encounter precise strikes from steel-armed crossbows.
The Russian soldiers who landed one after another were shooting in a general direction. The steel-armed crossbow almost only had one chance. When the shooting was completed, it was thrown back and put on, and then the sword was drawn to join the fight.
"Shield wall!"
Wadi roared while running, and the well-trained old warriors immediately looked left and right to adjust their steps, then stacked large shields, and then placed steel swords against the shields, deliberately and passively receiving the impact of the enemy's elite.
The chaos began.
The battle line was extremely clear, and the shield wall separated the two sides in the fierce battle. Fighting the Russian army in this way would inevitably suffer many casualties, and Wadi had no right to hesitate.
In a short period of time, all the elites of the Russian army had landed ashore. The forwards, the sword-and-shieldmen, fought against the elite offensive of the Frankish defenders like a shield wall. The brothers behind them, who were holding wooden-armed crossbows, simply threw them into the air.
Support can be provided.
The torque slingshot was not idle either. Black Fox himself was indeed inconvenient to participate in the battle, so he still gathered more than fifty veterans and set up an arrow formation on the shore with the crossbow still on the ship.
The Nassau and Coblenz militiamen were mostly armed with spears. They were commanded by two knights, Ballard and Gilbert, and were temporarily stationary under the orders of Black Fox.
"Sir, just watch them fight? I'm just going to stand here?" Ballard was already aroused by the atmosphere of war and was eager to join in the fight.
"Just look at them, this is a tactic! This is King Ross's tactic!"
Black Fox screamed and ordered the follow-up troops to guard the landing site. There were nearly two hundred people who seemed to be standing still, but in fact they were tactical reserves.
Only one person is required to operate each torsion slingshot. He pulls the winch hard to accumulate power, puts the javelin into the slide that has just been coated with sticky whale oil, and then pulls the rope to launch.
The warriors holding steel-armed crossbows gathered together and used small winches to charge up their power. After more than thirty people completed their work, under the command of Black Fox himself, when the sword he held high fell, all the crossbowmen launched their projectiles.
The short and thick crossbow arrows it fires can still fly about 150 meters, and this can completely cover the battlefield that is in chaos. If the arrows are missed, they will hit the enemy's formation at the risk of accidentally injuring friendly forces.
Although the force of the arrow is greatly weakened, it can make a dent in the helmet of a Frank soldier, but it is enough to fracture the skull of a soldier. Even if you are lucky, you will suffer a concussion. In a chaotic battle, if you fall to the ground, you will be killed by your companions or enemies.
If you are trampled, you will be trampled to death without any skin injuries.
The war situation was becoming unfavorable to the defenders. How could the limited elites alone withstand the well-prepared armored Ross veterans? They fought bravely to kill the enemy with the force of another Frankish elite force that killed 800 more than a month ago. Ross
Although the army suffered losses, the shield wall array kept advancing. Behind it were enemy corpses in a lake of flesh and blood, and a bloody creek was gradually forming. The blood was flowing towards the Saar River...
"Damn it!" Even Baron Sal himself could no longer watch the show on the high platform. He no longer stopped his son, realizing that he would be finished if he didn't do something, so he took his already angry son by the arm: "Boy!
Follow me and kill the barbarians!"
"Okay! I'll kill! We should have done this a long time ago!"
As the saying goes, Baron Sal also keeps a small reserve force, and they are all elite cavalry.
Some cavalry did not care about riding horses. They were fighting as infantry in the chaotic battle. However, the essence of the Frankish cavalry was still infantry on horseback. All elite warriors were all-rounders, and fighting on horseback made them more powerful.
Baron Wolfgang of Saar took over a very long spear and called to the more than ninety cavalry that could be summoned now. Among them, there were even horsemen who did not know what they were doing. They were all pulled up to check whether he was wearing armor or not.
Regardless of the original owner of the war horse, he wasted a little time and scraped together a hundred cavalry.
There was no pre-war mobilization announcement, and the war situation was deteriorating rapidly. Baron Sal simply led the charge with his spear raised high.
The Frankish defenders, who had been retreating steadily after being killed, and even began to have militiamen flee, suddenly saw the cavalry appear, and the battle line that was about to collapse suddenly stabilized.
"Oops!"
Vardy saw the moving "forest", felt the tremor of the earth, and suddenly realized that it was the cavalry! The cavalry is not scary. If one's own side lacks preparation, the Frank cavalry is an extremely terrifying monster that takes life.
And those guys...they are actually here.
"No!" Wadi suddenly turned around and found that the cavalry bypassed the chaotic battlefield and actually ran towards the landing site. At the critical moment, he could no longer separate the elite to return to the defense, and the black fox was also shocked to see a group of cavalry.
Appear.
Shocked, but Black Fox did not panic. Even the militiamen were just a little disorganized and quickly regained their spirits.
Frank cavalry! They wiped out a group of them in Koblenz just over a month ago.
Black Fox didn't care too much and quickly ordered: "Crossbowmen! Draw your sword! Spearmen, aim your spearhead at them!"
Once the crossbows and torsion slingshots were fully wound, they were immediately leveled and fired. The Frankish cavalry's attack was harassed, and some horses actually fell down and threw the riders away, uncertain whether they were alive or dead.
Harassment can't stop momentum, unless it's a wall of spears.
However, it was clear that there was a wall of spears in front of them, and Baron Sal himself could no longer stop the cavalry from reining in the precipice.
The Baron did not hesitate, and simply faced death with a martyr-like posture. Suddenly he thought of his son's words just now, so-called "You think you will die in this battle."
"Haha, maybe I really want to die here. But not necessarily."
Time seems to be exquisite, but it returns to reality in an instant.
Black Fox was dumbfounded, and when he saw a cavalry hitting him head-on, he subconsciously fell to the ground. Fortunately, he was not stabbed down or trampled by the horse's hooves.
Things are even worse for others!
However, the collision was mutual. The frantically charging Frank cavalry collided with the Black Fox's tactical reserve team. The knocked-down warrior suddenly got up, and instinctively picked up everything around him that could be used as a weapon.
They threw themselves into the fight. Those who were intact were like the two knights of the Black Fox. The two of them, with their single-digit retinue, managed to avoid the impact. Now they were carrying Ross steel swords and killing the fallen cavalry.
, assassinate the wandering horses, drag down the cavalry who have lost their impact and kill them...