Chapter 1185 Blue Fox, Robert at the Rhine Estuary
A huge fleet of ships was floating on the Rhine River, and the victorious army was rushing to another battlefield at high speed.
Most of the oars on each boat are stowed away, leaving only a few to act as rudders to control the course.
The water of the Rhine River pushed them smoothly through Cologne. Passing by boat on this riverside with solid stone walls was really a unique feeling for Robert in his life.
As a high-ranking nobleman, even though he has lost his fiefdom, his status is still a nobleman.
It is foreseeable that this man will definitely change his identity and continue to be cool after arriving at his father-in-law's territory.
Robert was able to sit on the Blue Fox's flagship and have a good chat with this fierce "Russian businessman" along the way.
On the right was Cologne. He noticed that there was an endless stream of people on the shore. Those who were crossing the river in small boats saw the huge fleet approaching and took an evasive attitude.
He stared intently at the stone wall, then raised his head slightly to point at the huge cross specially erected on the top of the cathedral, the tallest building in the city.
"Do you want to stay here? Maybe you can talk to the bishop." The flirtatious blue fox sat lazily and asked casually with a smile.
"No need. I don't want the bishop to see my desolation." As he said that, Robert lowered his head silently. "Let's continue sailing. Just follow the original plan."
"Okay. Then, maybe we can stay in Utrecht for a while."
"There? Don't go there."
Robert's words were a little more panicked. Why?
"Why not go? Anyway, along the way, my army can also make some supplies locally." Blue Fox said deliberately.
"Want supplies? Go there yourself. Give my family some ships and let me go to your New Durist first..."
"It's Rotterstad. The ruins of Durist are history and we have new ones."
"Anyway, it's the new stronghold of your Normans." Robert shrugged: "I can rest there. After that, I want to go south, and I want to get to Tours as soon as possible. Even if it's a dangerous sea route."
"Sea route? Dangerous? Ridiculous." Blue Fox smiled and shook his head, "You can't go first, and you can't go without my permission. It doesn't matter if you don't go to Utrecht, your old vassal Henry Nassau is doing it there.
Earl. A mere baron is now more powerful than you, and anyone with self-respect will be embarrassed. Don't worry... I won't let you be wronged."
"It seems you understand it very well. That's good."
"However." Blue Fox added casually: "When you get to Rotterstad, you will see our army that is about to plunder Aachen. You will see some old friends. Of course, if you are willing to meet them."
Upon hearing this, Robert, who was barely calm, became nervous again. "You!" He raised his head and bared his teeth: "Are you entertaining me?"
"I don't dare. But those guys might say some sarcastic words. It's a fact that you were defeated two years ago. Are we allies now?"
"Allies? Maybe."
"At least we can do business. This includes military transactions. If there is demand from Tours in the future, as long as we pay a suitable price, we Russians will send troops to help."
"Oh! Thank you so much." Robert emphasized his tone deliberately.
Robert had great expectations for his trip to Tours. His father-in-law was dead, the new Earl of Tours, his brother-in-law, was very young, and his wife was not young either.
The brother-in-law has a noble status but is too immature. Can he control the entire Loire River (County of Tours)? If he feels that it is difficult, as a brother-in-law, he will increase his efforts to help.
After some small talk, the army that left after the victory in Nassau-Coblenz has passed through Cologne silently.
Archbishop Hadbold, who had heard the important news, stood on the high wall and silently watched with the other cardinals as the fleet of longships furled their sails and left in a very peaceful manner.
"Did they win in Koblenz?"
"I really don't know how many more people they killed."
"They took thirty to forty people on each boat. Look at these boats. At least a thousand people left..."
The cardinals had different opinions, and the archbishop could not say anything about it. Regarding the large-scale war in Koblenz, messengers from the Wallendaal Monastery had been sent. Within a few days of the letter being delivered, a huge Russian fleet rowed an astonishing
The oar swept through the city with great force.
There are some things that the elderly archbishop would not dare to think about!
If you have an army of thousands of people, it will cost a lot of money and food just to feed them. Are the Russians gods? That blue fox can also summon an army of thousands of people with a wave of his hand? No one is a fool, those guys on the boat
Many of them wear helmets with strong reflections, and without helmets they all have blond hair.
The well-informed archbishop estimated that there was an astonishingly large Norman army entrenched at the mouth of the Rhine River. Were they going to fight a big battle? Obviously this was the only reliable explanation.
Who are they going to attack? Obviously little Koblenz is not their main target.
Maybe……
Even though Blue Fox had stationed a small army in Cologne some time ago, no one revealed that the army was going to attack New Rome, the capital of the empire.
The bishop is not a fool, he will think about it himself, and by thinking about it, he can estimate the general direction in which they will attack. Just like a pack of wolves will always rush towards the sheepfold, because the position of the sheepfold is basically constant, and the most important thing is that there is more meat there.
But what does this have to do with the Diocese of Cologne?
Unlike Archbishop Odegaard of Mainz, the Archbishop of Cologne had already extended an olive branch to Ludwig before the outbreak of the civil war. This is not entirely because the Cologne diocese as a whole is on the right bank (north bank) of the Rhine, but also because if it really allows
Lothair became the only king of all Franks. Could this power-minded king not plunder Cologne's wealth?
Although the Russians extorted five thousand pounds of silver coins very abominably, it was a one-time deal, and now that the two sides are at peace, they can engage in reciprocal trade. The wool textile handicraft industry is Cologne's unique business. With this set of business tricks, sooner or later the Cologne Diocese will be able to
Make money back.
What about Lothair? If he controls Cologne, it means that he controls the pockets of wealth. If this happens, the good days of the priests will be over.
Cologne will never have trouble with money. Secondly, the Diocese of Cologne is responsible to the Holy See. As for wars between big nobles, in principle there is no need to intervene.
However, Cologne was still deeply involved in the civil war, and its economic support for Ludwig was even more important than its military support. It seemed that by acting neutrally, they allowed the armies of the Eastern Kingdom to enter and exit at will, but the armies of the Middle Kingdom were not allowed to cross the river.
It doesn't matter that there are a large number of Norman armed forces entrenched at the mouth of the river. After all, Cologne also signed the peace treaty on Christmas Day a year ago. In principle, those Norman troops will ensure Cologne's defense security.
"Perhaps they feel that offense is the best defense. Normans are Normans."
Bishop Hardbold would never look down upon all the Normans, but he was afraid of their might and had to show humility. This attitude was also the same when facing King Ludwig.
The Ross fleet had disappeared without a trace, and the bishop, who had been silent for a long time, heard other people talking too much.
He coughed twice to stop his chatter: "If we leave, the Normans will go to rob again, and the Lord will punish them."
Will the Lord punish them? Then wouldn’t the Cologne priests who had deep trade with the Normans be punished?
Who cares?
The priests are now more concerned about the "autumn wool" of Flanders, when the Flanders will use the longships of the Normans, especially the Rus, to transport the second batch of wool to Cologne this year. The current situation is
The wool from the entire Flanders wool-producing area is completely transported by water to its only destination, Cologne. In the entire trade activities, Cologne passively completes the monopoly of processing supplied materials.
Only Cologne had a huge handicraft population that could quickly consume Flanders wool and make wool products for sale to the entire Frankish world. The prospect of wealth was bright.
In his heart, the archbishop hoped that the Norman army would carry out large-scale plundering of the Middle Kingdom this year, but on the surface, he did not make any indication, even if it was just a show, he showed that he did not understand the matter and did not want to know about it.
On this route, the Russian army did not even want to dock to rest unless necessary. There were even villages and strongholds belonging to the Middle Kingdom on the left bank of the river. In theory, they were all targets for looting.
The blue fox no longer wasted time and decided not to take the northern waterway after entering the estuary area, so-called no longer through the Utrecht waterway.
The fleet took the widest waterway and arrived at Rotterstad smoothly and quickly.
At this time, a large number of boats can be seen with the naked eye on the extremely wide river. They are all long boats of various sizes. The bows and sterns of the boats are raised high and serve as anchorage ropes. The different sizes still prove that
its identity.
In the lowlands on the right bank of the river, an incredible number of houses appear.
This place is certainly not Durist, and even if it is not a ruin, it is not built on the largest river.
"Incredible." Robert stood up in surprise. He walked around on the long boat until he reached the bow. He held on to the rope and looked at the huge settlement on the shore. "It's like it suddenly appeared."
A large area of mushrooms. How did you do it? This place shouldn’t be a wasteland?”
The blue fox couldn't help but feel deeply proud. He shouted loudly and his words were more exaggerated: "It is indeed your first time here. This is Rotterstad, a settlement larger than Durist. It is definitely here now
Ten thousand people! We fish here, ship goods here. The army is stationed here, and we can fight whoever we want! This place belongs to no one."
"Doesn't belong to anyone? Doesn't it belong to you?!"
"Only part of it belongs to Ross! Look." Blue Fox pointed to a small river in the estuary area: "That is a Danish settlement, and we in Ross can't control them."
"Where is your power?"
"It's still a little downstream, you'll see it soon."
Indeed, there are significant differences in appearance between the areas controlled by the Rus and the Danes. The Danish-controlled areas were colonized by various tribes. They built houses in the same way as in their hometowns, with long houses with haystack roofs rising from the ground.
From now on, the overall arrangement along the river looks chaotic, but the residents can easily distinguish which tribe each other belongs to.
The Kingdom of Ross is more organized, especially the Red Fox of the Gould family who was appointed as the governor of Rotterstad, specifically the governor of the local area controlled by the Ross people. He led the manpower to build regular buildings.
It is better to place materials and take into account transportation. Shops especially choose places closer to the sea. Although this kind of area is more susceptible to erosion by tides, the convenience of the location makes the trouble of tides no longer a problem.
For this place, Rurik did not want it to become the territory of the kingdom. It would be enough for the kingdom to establish a base covering trade, shipping, and military affairs here.
Rurik thought so, but some nobles didn't want it to be just that.
Count Baudouin of Flanders did not trust all the Russians, but the young governor Red Fox Gouldson arranged by Rurik was worthy of trust and win over.
Baudouin couldn't wait to send his little daughter over. Of course, the girl was not of marriageable age under Frankish law. It didn't matter!
Marriage is also a bargaining chip in commercial trade. Baudouin was afraid that the situation would change. Taking advantage of the victory of the wool monopoly trade that had just been completed and the large number of Norman nobles entrenched at the mouth of the Rhine River, he originally wanted to wait.
He was well versed in the art of maneuvering according to the circumstances, and after some quick thinking, he sent his daughter to Rose's Shop at the mouth of the river.
Is the fat little red fox a vicious person? Absolutely not. This fat little golden retriever longs for merit and glory, and his understanding of glory is to become extremely rich, just like his deceased old father.
Cohabitation is considered a marriage. When a woman is by his side, a man's heart is basically tied to her.
So when the returning fleet docked, Red Fox, who came to greet him in person, decisively brought his fiancée with him. But in Blue Fox's view, his fourth brother brought his sister-in-law to greet them.
Looking back at myself... I am still a "lonely wave".
There is no woman that Lan Hu is obsessed with, and he doesn't care about marriage and childbirth. Anyway, his fiefdom in the north has a very large population, so he can just pick any woman to be his wife, even if there is a cross hanging on his chest.
The Ross Shop is located on a relatively high ground, some distance away from the pier, so that the sea tide will not erode the main part of the shop.
A small-scale city rises from the ground, with wooden walls surrounding a large number of regularly arranged buildings. Just outside the wooden walls are a considerable number of shantytowns. Although there are a large number of shacks and wooden houses, their arrangement is also very particular, and reserved
The horizontal and vertical roads are arranged in a grid pattern, and drainage ditches are dug on both sides of the road. The road is not reinforced, but the road surface is trampled as flat as possible, and it is inevitable to be muddy after heavy rain.
The victorious warriors disembarked one after another and returned to their temporary barracks.
The Russian-Danish coalition forces that were eager to go out had been waiting here for a long time. Blue Fox didn't know whether they were in a hurry or not, but a large number of wooden poles were set up and tied with hemp ropes. On the ropes hung a large number of fish that had been cut open and held up. The fish fillets were being received.
The sun-roasted fish becomes dried, and this simply dried salted fish is a very common sailing dry food in the Viking world.
Robert originally thought that he would stay in a corrupt and powerful pirate den for a few days before heading to the civilized world of Tours, but he did not expect that the situation in the real area controlled by the Russians was very good.
What surprised him most was that the road was straight, and the blackened road surface was because it was composed of coastal silt. There was no stench of feces or urine on the road surface, and the houses on both sides of the road did not appear to be messy at all.
"What do you think?" Lan Hu, who had been chatting with his fourth brother for a while, deliberately approached the Robert family who was looking around. His smile was clearly showing off, and Robert had to admit that they had the capital to show off.
"I feel very good. You actually call this a shop?"
"if not?"
"It should be a city."
"Yes, but not entirely. Let's go and enter the wall. That's the main body of the shop. Haha, an indestructible fortress. I'm going to hold a noble dinner tonight."
Having said this, Blue Fox did not forget to say more: "Robert, you are a great nobleman, and your wife is equally noble. Also here are the young King of Mercia, the Duke of Melalen of Ross, and our earldom.
The five barons, the prince of Denmark, the son of the earl of Finland..."
Blue Fox counted on his fingers. The large number of nobles proved the complexity of the huge army stationed here.
And this surprised Robert even more.
How many Norman troops are there? The number of elite soldiers who can directly participate in the battle is said to be 3,000. Including the second-level soldiers, the strength has exceeded 4,000. But in Robert's view, all the northern fishermen have turned into soldiers. Norman
Such are the characteristics of human beings.
He guessed that Blue Fox was being conservative in his words. After all, when the fleet landed, he saw a large number of longships of different sizes with their ends tilted up near the coast of the Russian-controlled area, and there were also a large number of ships floating on the sea.
There are even several giant ships that cannot be ignored.
Is the man who has such huge military strength just Joseph Blue Fox? King Rus himself is not here? Does Rurik really trust this round-faced guy?
That’s fine, don’t think too much about it.
Robert was very happy that the Blue Fox had returned and asked his subordinates to prepare a sumptuous dinner to cleanse themselves from the dust. This dinner did not include Henry Nassau, the Earl of the Netherlands, so there was no serious embarrassment. However, no matter how you think of the dinner, it is a "supper for barbarians."
, it would be a shame for his wife, the second lady of the Earl of Tours, to participate.
There was no reason for a high-ranking female noble to participate in such a banquet, which was likely to be very rough. Robert was only willing to go alone. He was already prepared to be ridiculed by a group of Norman nobles about his past defeats, so he patted his face and decided to participate.
Because he wanted to know how exactly these barbarians wanted to attack Aachen.