What surprised Robert was that even after revealing his identity, the Norman nobles attending the meeting did not mention the war two years ago at all.
The words of the Norman nobles were very direct. They were all asking about one thing - how about Aachen's gold and silver.
"Gold? Of course there is a lot of gold in New Rome, provided you can really break it in. However, if you really do this, those nobles will kill you."
Robert was busy eating. Not to mention, the pea production in the lowlands has never been adequate. It is indeed a wonderful feeling to use cooked peas as a staple food. Now it tastes good when paired with some grilled fish.
His flattering description aroused everyone's excitement, and they collectively banged the table rhythmically, clearly demonstrating their ambition to plunder gold and silver.
"Gold!" Black Fox knocked on the table hard.
"Ho! Roar!"
After a while, everyone knocked on the table collectively.
"silver!"
"Ho! Roar!"
"woman!"
"Ho! Roar!"
"Gods bless us! We will win!"
"Wow!" Duke Bjorn of Malaren simply stood up in a rage, baring his teeth and sticking out his tongue, like a wolf that could swallow its prey alive.
The nobles yelled crazily in Norse, and even the too-young Asgard, Reglaf, and Yinvar with weak legs bared their teeth and claws like adults.
Robert even felt deeply afraid, fearing that these ruthless people would go crazy and take him away as a sacrifice to the barbarian god.
The dinner had a violent beginning and a violent end, which made Robert dislike this place very much and wanted to leave by boat.
The returning warriors need a short period of adjustment, and the other warriors, who are in surprising numbers, may need time to reorganize their internal affairs.
Blue Fox gave the army three days, and these three days were also an opportunity for Robert's family to get to know King Reglaf of Mercia, who was about to go south to Tours, and Bruno, the eldest son of the Duke of Saxony.
The civil war between the top nobles forced vassals from all over the country to take sides. Robert had no hatred for the Duke of Saxony and was following orders to fight fiercely with each other.
He kept emphasizing this, which actually reassured Bruno.
According to the new arrangement after Blue Fox's adjustment, there will be ten longships heading south to Tours. Here are Reglaf and his guards, Bruno who is on board, sixty Russian soldiers specially arranged to come in, and the rest are all Robert
family members.
Those who don’t know how to operate a longship must learn as soon as possible. A total of nearly one hundred and fifty Norman warriors are on board. At best, they are messenger guards, at worst, they can turn into bandits in an instant. These people all obey Mercia
King Regrave dispatched, and the team also included accompanying priests arranged by the Diocese of Utrecht. Such actions made Robert willing to believe that all behaviors of this group of Normans would be restrained.
Robert currently has a total of seventy soldiers. He dismissed many of them before, and the fifty prisoners he rescued in Coblenz suddenly had a new identity. What is very magical is that they were killed by the Normans and cried.
Damn it, they actually imitated the Normans and rowed hard. It would be impossible not to learn, after all, this place is full of Normans speaking another language.
Many people couldn't help but secretly worry about the future of the empire.
Let the empire go to hell! King Lothair may not win the final victory. After all, all the nobles did not expect that there would be a huge Norman army entrenched at the mouth of the Rhine River, and this army was about to attack Aachen arrogantly.
Faced with such a situation, what should a small soldier do? There are also people who want to escape, even if they swim across the river or run on foot, they must report the matter to the southern nobles as soon as possible.
Soldiers who had such thoughts were slapped hard by their colleagues.
The rational veteran said plausibly: "Go and report the news? Who will believe you, a deserter? We have died in Coblenz, and now we can only have a chance to live in Tours. If one person escapes, other people will be implicated. If there are any escapees,
I will kill him."
Indeed, it was because of the distrust of the Russians that he had a new identity but was not even worthy of a knife for cutting meat. If he wanted to re-arm himself, he could only do so in Tours.
On the appointed day, the morning tide receded, and ships were parked densely at the mouth of the Inn River.
On the shore, there were even more soldiers carrying weapons and luggage. The weather was not bad today. The sun shone on the soldiers' iron helmets, and a large area was strongly reflective.
An army that pays great attention to logistics is rare in today's Europe. The Russian Army is just such an army. After the army has enjoyed the benefits of abundant logistics materials time and time again, it has been particularly diligent in this regard.
Everyone had a burlap bag, which contained wheat, peas, a large amount of dried fish and baked wheat cakes.
Each soldier was responsible for himself. He ate dry food while marching, and once there was time to rest on land, he would set up cooking utensils and cook wheat on the spot.
Rolled blankets were tied to both sides of the linen sacks, and bucklers were also tied to the backpacks. Swords, axes, and daggers were jingling on the soldiers' bodies, and many of them carried their crossbows.
The ones with the best clothes and the most complex equipment are the Ross elite, and Robert already knows the strength of their troops.
There are also a large number of people wearing armor and white robes. This is the so-called Gothenburg Army under Ross, which is actually the army of the Blue Fox fiefdom.
As for the other armies, their situation is extremely strange. These Normans are actually wearing Frankish armor. It is self-evident how they obtained the armor.
Robert himself didn't want to say anything anymore. He wanted to leave quickly and didn't want to have anything to do with the north anymore.
His wife Adelaide silently boarded the boat with her child in her arms, sat down safely, and then called her husband to come quickly.
Standing on the shore, Robert no longer wanted to say anything to Blue Fox, especially now that the group of people were obviously doing sacrificial tricks again.
"Absurd." He spat, shook his head, and jumped on board.
The necessary farewell words have been said. Blue Fox and others are not friends with the Robert family. At best, Robert is just a tool that can be used.
He, Reglaf and Bruno had said their private farewells, and now the two young men are about to leave.
Putting on cloth robes dyed in light green, the identities of this Norman army were transformed into the King's Guards of Mercia. Dark green was the color of the Kingdom of Mercia. At that time, Mercia could not unify its military uniforms, so it could only play with the color.
.Regraf made a fuss about the clothes, but due to the dyeing problem of the fabric, the color of the robe became lighter and lighter after being washed several times.
There is no problem with this. He now has more troops, which have expanded to more than a hundred people and can support his noble line. Next, he will go to see the Earl of Tours as the King of Mercia.
It can be said that Reglaf is the commander of the fleet going south. Being young is not ignorant. Thinking that his father Rurik is already commanding battles at such an age, it may be too difficult to surpass his father. At least he must behave like a real man.
.
His eyes were fixed on the people who were slaughtering cattle for sacrifice by the river. In the same old Russian tradition, the blood of livestock flowed into the ocean to sacrifice to the gods.
But……
"Ah, you and I are no longer the same." Reglaf turned his head slightly, and saw that the accompanying priest closed his eyes gently, as if seeing the "barbarian priest" out of sight and out of mind, and hugged him tightly.
The huge wooden cross has now become Reglaf’s spiritual sustenance.
He had found his place, and when he saw Robert had boarded the ship, he imitated an adult and stood up and gave the order: "Fly the cross flag! Fly the king's flag!"
The only mast of the flagship hoisted a special flag, which was dyed bluish blue with woad juice, and a blanched yellow cloth dyed with yellow root carrot juice was sewn on the diagonal.
If Ross's oar flag could be mistaken for "St. Andrew's Cross", the real Mercian flag raised by Reglaf this time really found inspiration from "St. Andrew's Cross". He actually
I'm very happy that the flag is very similar to Rus' but not at all, and the army under my command is derived from the Rus' army but not at all.
Then in Robert's opinion, a young boy was holding the bow of the boat and yelling at the rowers. This boy was either stupid or really ambitious.
"The eldest son of Rurik? How old was Rurik when he had an affair with a woman? Is he a god? Maybe. Maybe this boy can do some miracles. He will never be in the picture under the banner of Mercia.
You're going to cause destruction." Robert kept his words in his heart, and faced his wife's worries with a few words of comfort.
The fleet left the port of Ross Shop, and the next step was to head south along the coastline. It would be a sea area that was completely unfamiliar to all people from the north, but it didn't matter. Based on past experience, as long as the fleet groped along the coastline, everything would be fine.
.
What makes Reglaf very confident is that he has a map drawn by his father himself. The map is slightly rough, but it actually marks a huge cape, the so-called "Brittany", as long as the fleet crosses the sea.
It is only a matter of time before the angle continues to advance along the coastline and enters the mouth of the Loire River. It can even enter the correct mouth of the Seine and directly hit Paris.
So this is what makes Robert shudder.
Reglaf was young and ambitious, but unfortunately at such an age it was easy to act foolish. He shared the map with Robert, who was immediately shocked.
Robert had to think more about where Rurik and his men got the information from, even though they had never been to the south. Although the spelling of the letters was a bit strange, and even the writing was strange, he could recognize and spell it, and then he suddenly realized
.The map is set to have the upper north and lower south, which is very Russian-like. Robert is not surprised by this. But such a precious map can be easily held by his young son. Does Rurik really not care?
Or is it that the Russians have already planned to invade the southern region?
You can't just think about it this way. Even the Seine River is marked on the map. Regardless of whether the location is correct or not, there is an entrance to the sea and the city of Paris. With the navigation advantage of the Normans, they just defeated the Middle Kingdom in Coblenz.
The army is quite an inland area. If...
Look at the oarsmen wearing light green clothes on the nearby ships. They are the so-called Mercian Guards, which are essentially a large group of Normans. If they have more ships, they are all wearing white robes sewn with blue stripes.
, it will definitely not be a problem to attack Paris directly by water.
The Normans can do it, why can't I? If I borrow their ship and I use Tour's army to sneak attack on Paris to get it, won't my strength be restored immediately?
In a desperate situation, Robert had not only hope, but also ambition, and a desire for revenge.
His revenge is not against a specific person, but against this unfair world. It is unreasonable for the dignified Robertini family to be reduced to a lost dog in his own generation. Besides, his wife and her family suffered a lot in this large-scale civil war.
He has set his sights on wealthy Paris and fantasizes about getting it. Is this an unfulfillable delusion? Not necessarily!
As long as King Lothair is defeated and as long as the current Earl of Paris is killed in the civil war, there will be a chance. As the saying goes, nobles are related to each other. His wife Adelaide and the Earl of Paris are distant relatives. Civil War
The relatives were beaten to a bloody pulp, but they left an opportunity for the relatives to inherit the noble titles and fiefdoms of a certain place.
The mother of the Earl of Paris of this generation is the cousin of the late Earl of Tours. If the family becomes extinct, in principle, his wife has a certain possibility of inheritance.
Even if there is only a slight possibility, it will be convenient for publicity and mediation with other nobles after the event is completed.
As for making it possible, is there any quicker means than war?
After all, I didn’t come to Tours to be a wealthy and idle person.
"You left..."
Blue Fox couldn't help but glance at the fleet that was moving away, and then turned his eyes to the sacrifice in front of him.
The water turned red with cow blood, and the beef was chopped again, and finally the beef and bones were thrown into the sea.
The soldiers on standby began to beat the drums, and the horns of the entire army were blown.
"Let's go." After saying that, the blue fox jumped onto the long boat.
Soldiers on standby were getting on board one after another, and more and more half-stranded longboats were gathering on the river.
The cables thrown from the armed cargo ship were caught by the long ship, and four ships towed one, and they began to line up in an orderly manner.
The main force of the Russian army consists of two elite flag corps with a strength of 1,000. The Count of Gothenburg has 800 troops, the Principality of Mälaren has 500 soldiers, and the Count of Finland has 500 troops. In addition, there are also naval sailors and engineers for land operations.
Prince Yinval of Denmark even attracted some Danish fishermen to join him in Rotterstad, and the force has expanded.
On the surface, the strength of the army attacking Aachen was close to four thousand, but in fact it had exceeded this number.
Fishermen with different backgrounds often do not take the initiative to join a certain force. They are like a group of hyenas following a group of lions. The lions eat meat, and the hyenas can also eat some leftovers.
The northern fishermen brought their own weapons and took advantage of the power of the crusade to plunder. There were even local fishermen from Utrecht mixed in here.
Robbery was obviously a serious crime, but all the blame could be placed on the Normans, who dressed up as Norman pirates and rowed their own small fishing boats to join the mighty team.
The Russian army was wearing white robes with blue stripes, and the towed armed cargo ships and sail destroyers, in addition to carrying a large amount of logistical supplies, also had a large number of warriors with bows and crossbows on standby.
Only the Norman army could use ships to launch attacks, and now their weapons and equipment were not what they used to be, and they even had a wonderful weapon - a map.
The mighty Russian army took the lead in advancing, followed closely by friendly forces from all sides.
The Maas River, which is up to 100 meters wide, is full of long boats with both ends tilted up. Bucklers with various patterns are placed on both sides, and huge oars paddle the water rhythmically.
The Maas River has never seen such a scene, and indeed few residents on both sides pay attention to this matter, because the residents seem to have disappeared.
Both sides of the Maas River are low and flat, with clusters of woods and huge shrubs on them.
The army seemed to have entered uninhabited territory, and it was not until the third day of sailing that they saw the first village near the river.
The village was like a gift from the gods to the coalition forces. The top commander, Blue Fox, did not hesitate to send troops to investigate and rob some supplies.
However, this is clearly an empty village. Not only are the houses deserted, but a large number of indoor furnishings are gathering dust. The surrounding farmland is overgrown with weeds, and the small piers along the river are dilapidated and covered with moss. There are no dogs barking or chickens crowing, and the whole village seems dead.
.
Where have they all gone?
"Are these villagers afraid of something and moved away early? Isn't it because what we did before went too far?"
Blue Fox estimated that the Russian army launched a sacking of the big cities in Flanders two years ago, which indeed caused panic in the region. Could it be that this remote village also moved away after hearing the news? Not necessarily.
An abandoned village happened to be the foothold of the army. After landing, they buried pots to cook. Not many people cared about why the village was empty. The continuous navigation made the soldiers paddling in the opposite direction exhausted. The dry food was just make-do, dry and hard.
Dried fish wears the gums and mouth, so if you have the chance, everyone still likes to eat the new Huhu porridge mixed with oats and peas.
What is certain is that the coalition led by Ross did indeed sail on the Meuse River.
As long as you continue to move forward, once you find a large city, a wooden cross on top of the towering spire of the monastery, and a solid wooden bridge, that is the initial target of the battle, Maastricht.
It is said that the target is not very far from the mouth of the Rhine River, and everyone wants to believe that the war will definitely happen within three days.