Aachen was Charlemagne's Aachen. As the successor to the throne, Lothair naturally inherited the imperial capital of his grandfather the Great.
But this city was not built by him. As the new "Roman Emperor", it seemed natural to choose a new capital for himself.
There were four important cities in the core area of Frankish rule: Aachen, Paris, Mainz and Strasbourg.
There are many emperor's palaces scattered throughout the empire, and these cities and palaces can be set as his permanent residence by Lothair himself.
He is now in Strasbourg, and many members of the royal family from his family have temporarily moved to this city.
Strasbourg is even more heavily guarded. It has become the de facto new capital of Lothair and is also a giant barracks. To guard this place, the troops point directly at Mainz in the north, and they can also force their way through the upper reaches of the Rhine River that runs north to south here.
River, enter the Württemberg Mountains on the other side, and make a roundabout way into Bavaria. Of course, the latter move is only theoretical. Lothair has thought about the plan of venturing into the mountains to launch a surprise attack, but considering the strength of his army and his commanding ability, such a thing cannot be done.
forget it.
None of Charlemagne's three living grandsons felt that their military prowess could surpass or equal that of their grandfather the Great.
Even for Lothair, whose military strength has been rapidly expanded through large-scale conscription, only in this way can he dare to launch a decisive battle against his younger brother. He lacks tactical confidence and does not believe that he can win the war with a small number of elite soldiers.
Lower Mainz.
Of course, while he was still busy recruiting troops and training new troops with the intention of launching a decisive autumn offensive, he had no idea that his rear was being occupied by Normans.
People poked holes everywhere. Unexpectedly, in order to win, his brother Ludwig made a secret conspiracy with the Norman nobles. A series of actions were like making a deal with the devil.
The city of Aachen seemed to remain outside the civil war.
Lothair and his wife have seven children.
The two princes and three princesses lived temporarily in the Strasbourg palace with their father.
The third daughter, Immingard, was sixteen years old. She was naturally beautiful and was kidnapped. Her kidnapper was Gilbert, Count of Ramongo. This kind of thing made Lothair dumbfounded. As the saying goes, now is the critical period of the civil war.
Count Ramengau's neighbor was the Count of Flanders, which repeatedly jumped between rebellion and surrender. This count actually became a noble guarding the northwest frontier of the Middle Kingdom.
Gilbert used this as a threat, so it was not until this year, 842, that Lothair had to recognize the marriage.
There is a canary living in the city of Namur. The sixteen-year-old Immingard does not like this man who is five years older than him, so what can he do? His father has already recognized the marriage, and
As a royal princess, she does not have the right to choose her own marriage.
Of course, Earl Gilbert would not treat his daughter badly when he got his beloved.
But now the earl is facing the most serious crisis in his life - the strong invasion of the Normans.
However, it is said that the Ross coalition led by Blue Fox burned, killed and looted along the Meuse River, and a large number of refugees fleeing along the river poured into Ramengau and towards the city of Namur.
After his father's death, at the age of seventeen, Gilbert was canonized as the new Ramon Gaubert by Lothair himself, then the co-emperor and now the "only Roman Emperor"
….
Lord.
It was on that occasion that he personally knelt before his monarch at the Aachen Palace. Taking this opportunity, he met his future love, Princess Immingard, who was only twelve years old at the time.
He was now young and vigorous. When the kidnapped marriage was recognized by the king and he heard that Maastricht was seriously hostile, he not only guarded his fiefdom, but also wanted to help the king solve the crisis. The young earl resolutely decided
Resolutely carry out large-scale conscription and recruit as many peasants as possible throughout the fiefdom to fight for justice and faith.
And this courage also impressed Princess Immingard.
At least this man really deserved to be a brave man at this moment, and that kind of masculine charm made her admire her for the first time.
However, Princess Immingard did not know the identity of those Normans, and she had no idea what this group of pirates would do after going deep into the river.
All the nobles of Ramengau could not imagine that Aachen, not far away, had been targeted by the Normans, and even these pirates who landed had broken into the city without any hindrance.
Aachen is not a city place, so the population living in the city has remained at around 5,000 people for a long time. There are hundreds of thousands of village residents around the city, most of which are distributed in the county of Lichgau. During major festivals,
Often more than 20,000 villagers poured into Aachen, causing the city to be choked with water in a short period of time.
Hard granite slabs paved the streets, especially the central square of the city outside the prince and the cathedral. This quite open area gave the Russian warriors who entered the city a strong sense of sight.
Nowadays, the blue fox doesn't care about robbing people on the spot. The houses on both sides of the road are very regulated. If you look carefully, it
They are still a kind of folk house. How many coins can you rob by robbing a folk house? If you really want to rob gold, you still have to go to the church.
The offensives of the two elite banner corps of the Russian army were very targeted, and they targeted the palace and the church.
Since the army entered the city with almost no resistance, the residents of the city only heard the noise outside the city at first, and thought that because there were some follow-up activities not long after St. Peter's Day, the country people were shouting again.
They didn't pay attention to the people who were about to enter the city. As a result, when they opened the bay window on the second floor, they saw a large number of weirdos with bucklers running wildly on the street.
At first, the people just watched the excitement and did not feel any fear. It was not until arrows started flying to attack the bay windows that the peaceful residents screamed in fear.
Too fast! The army that rushed into the city was too fast.
The elite Russian troops in white robes with blue stripes rushed too fast. Thinking that they would not be able to compete with these ruthless people, the backward Jotalan nobles brought their villagers into the city and began to plunder.
They invaded various streets and alleys, broke into houses and shops, killed the residents and then rummaged through their belongings. They could have captured many people, but these soldiers did not bother to do so considering practical factors.
They gnawed on the bread and dipped the bread cubes in jam. They snatched pottery jars containing pickles and ate the seized bread with pickled cabbage.
After all, a lot of the food they had eaten when they set out early in the morning had been consumed by now, and their empty stomachs were in urgent need of more food.
Aachen is indeed the capital of the Franks. Although this city easily surprises everyone, the food here does not lie. A lot of sweet jams and honey have been seized.
….
A lot of money was looted from the houses.
These warriors opened the wardrobes of civilian houses, took out all kinds of clothes, and wore long robes to show off to each other.
The bodies of those who were killed were not spared, and the shoes were stripped off for the soldiers to keep as their own, as were some of the blood-stained clothes.
After all, it is still too cold in the Göta River Basin in the north. No one living in that environment feels that they have too many clothes. Their enthusiasm for robbing clothes, shoes, hats and gloves is no less than taking away gold and silver. Now everyone can
He said that he gained a lot from this aspect.
No, even the coarse cloth curtains stained with dust were torn down. After shaking off the dust, a large amount of looted clothes were wrapped in it, made into a huge cloth bag, and then tied with hemp rope, and carried on the back to continue participating.
Loot.
"Keep walking! Don't worry about the surrounding houses, let the brothers behind you grab them! Let's go to the church!" The running blue fox yelled a few words, then shut up.
There was really no need for him to mutter anything more. The pile of feathers specially inserted on his helmet and the Ross flag flying at the head of the team had already pointed the way for the troops behind him.
So, in the central square of the city, the city defenders met in a narrow road with the elite Russian troops who broke into it.
Seeing an army from a foreign land, Captain Sebastian of the Guardian Flag was greatly shocked.
However, he hesitated for a moment, then resolutely drew out his sword and pointed the sword pointedly: "Warriors! Kill the intruders!"
After saying that, he took the lead in charging.
Finally encountering urban resisters in the true sense, the appearance of these Frankish troops inspired the strong fighting spirit of the elite Ross warriors.
But both sides
The gap in strength was really outrageous. A thousand Rus elites faced less than 200 defenders. Under the overwhelming superiority of troops, the defeat of the defenders was inevitable.
The heavy soldiers of the Russian standing army wearing breastplates swarmed forward, forming a shield wall and attacking like a steel steamroller.
The powerful force crushed the defenders' line with just one impact. Once the defenders were crushed and accidentally fell, the horrific killings began.
Among the rebels, Sebaste, who fought extremely bravely for loyalty and honor, was severely hit in the face by a battle axe. After he suddenly fainted, the hammer struck down and directly killed him.
A large number of Frank warriors, their iron swords poked at the breastplates of the Russian soldiers in vain. Instead, the Russian soldiers who were proficient in killing used elastic steel swords to seal their throats. The Frank soldiers had cloth armor riveted with iron plates.
With strong defensive power, the weakness of the neck was discovered by the Russian army.
The square that was originally the central square for major festivals has now become a place of terror. The blood of dead soldiers began to gather into a stream, gradually flowing into the city's drainage ditch along the drainage gully deliberately reserved in the square's stone slabs, and finally mixed with the seeping hot spring water.
One flows into the nearest river.
At the same time, the great nobles living in palaces and churches have been completely alarmed.
At this moment, the palace is already in chaos!
Lothair could live in the Aachen Palace, but he had not been able to do so in the past two years due to war.
The eldest son and the youngest son were taken with him, taking advantage of the opportunity of the civil war to let the young people see the world. Three of the four daughters have been married to nobles, but only the youngest daughter remains in the palace of Aachen.
….
"Your Highness, come out
It’s over, let’s go quickly.” The palace steward rudely broke into the princess’s boudoir.
At this moment, the extremely bored Princess Gisla was playing an embroidery game with her maid. She had already had breakfast and was still waiting for her afternoon Latin course.
Today should be a normal day, and I am doing what I like as before.
She had curly hair and gently brushed her drooping bangs. She turned her head slightly and looked surprised at the sudden intrusion of the male manager.
"Why?! Why are you here! Get out!"
The steward was startled for a moment, but now he couldn't care too much, so he went a step further and barged in directly. He actually grabbed the princess's tender arm and said, "Please atone for your sins. I have no choice now."
"What are you doing? Let go!"
Unable to resist the princess's protest, the steward dragged the panicked princess outward like a lamb. Her maid hurriedly threw away the work at hand. Although she didn't know why, it was the first time she saw the steward so panicked. Something terrible must have happened.
matter.
In desperation, Princess Gisla opened her small mouth and bit the steward fiercely. Even though she felt pain, the steward remained unmoved.
After being forcibly dragged out of the boudoir, she suddenly saw the nanny already waiting here.
"What's going on? Mary, what happened?"
Mary, the nanny with a wrinkled face, was already trembling. She forced herself to sit still and explained softly: "Raiders! A lot of attackers broke into the city."
"What? Attackers?! This is the royal city!"
"Your Highness!" the steward shouted at the princess, frightening the girl immediately: "There is no time! If we are a step later, we will not be able to escape.
Lost."
"Escape? Why escape? Where is the army?" Princess Gisla asked tremblingly.
"The army has started fighting." In desperation, the manager no longer cared about any etiquette.
He is the palace steward appointed by the king. This position is only to take care of the daily life of the royal family members who stay in Aachen. It also manages the daily life of all attendants, including cleaning the palace, garden sanitation, supervising the food supply of the royal family, and even supervising the daily life.
This is a very complicated task, and now his biggest duty is to take care of Gisla, the only fourth princess still left in the palace.
There was a sudden feeling of weightlessness, and the twelve-year-old princess was carried behind her by the steward. This old man still had great strength.
"Let's go quickly!" the steward shouted to everyone in front of him, then he carried the princess and ran out of the palace.
"My jewelry! My clothes! Alicia, go get my jewelry!"
"yes!"
The maid Alicia turned back again. In a hurry, she picked up the small gold-plated box where the princess usually kept her gems and jewelry, ran out with it, and then used great strength to catch up with the fugitives. She even ran away with her shoes.
Already.
Having just caught up with the team, she hurriedly showed the box she got. Seeing it, the princess finally smiled with relief, and also noticed that her maid was already barefoot.
The two girls are similar in age. Princess Gisla is Charlemagne's great-granddaughter and Lothair's fourth daughter. She can be said to be a top noble.
The maid Alicia was also from a noble family, but her rank was much lower. This noble beauty was found by Gisla's mother from Lombardy and was sent to the Aachen Palace.
Aristocratic girls have bright big eyes and darker hair, proving their noble bloodline.
Indeed, although Alicia is a maid, her ancestors do have Roman blood, so she has brown-black slightly curly hair, but it is much darker than her own princess's hair.
She was arranged to take care of the princess's life and grow up with her. The princess would marry a great nobleman, and she would be arranged to be the abbot of a certain women's monastery, and she would spend her life pure.
Regardless of their noble rank, they have never been able to disobey their arranged destiny. They are like birds that were born to live in a cage. Without feeling the vast sky, they have nothing to lose.
However, a strange army invaded Aachen, and the arranged fate finally encountered an unavoidable blow from the far north. It was like a snowstorm from the Arctic, which dealt Aachen a more violent blow than the winter cold wave.
Many waiters may have no chance to escape, and the palace manager does not care about the fate of those lower class people.
He planned to carry the princess on his back and rush directly to the stables and warehouses outside the palace. The grain and vegetables outside the city needed to be transported here by carriage, so he could use the carriage to escape in an emergency.