It seems that the battle situation is developing as Arik hoped. The Russians who were waiting carefully were attacked by their opponents. This situation was what Arik had dreamed of.
But the situation has undergone a very surprising change.
There was a whooshing sound in the air, and the Ross warriors saw many guys throwing javelins?!
Yes, there are indeed some sticks thrown by the shaggy-headed enemies.
"Damn it! Stack the shield wall! Defend!" Arik ordered loudly.
He had just finished issuing the order and the soldiers had just raised their shields above their heads when those javelins came crashing down on them.
The sharp spear heads directly pierced the wooden shields of many people. Only those shields deliberately reinforced with copper sheets and leather barely withstood the attack.
Arik's eyes widened under the shield. He saw a slender javelin head next to his left arm. It was like a huge arrow, and after it penetrated his shield, it became a little crooked.
The entire shield became heavier, and the wooden handle of the enemy's javelin hung on the outside, becoming an extremely embarrassing burden.
"Is there such a thing?"
Arik had never been attacked by such a weapon. Fortunately, he had seen many battles. After encountering an unexpected blow, he quickly recovered his consciousness.
He simply knelt down, placed his buckler on the ground, raised his steel sword with his strong right arm, cut off the entire javelin, and then pulled out the slender javelin head.
The first thing the Russians encountered was the opponent's long-range offensive. The distance between the two sides was actually within fifty meters. After withstanding this javelin, the Russians saw their commander cutting off the hateful javelin with skillful means, and they also raised their own
The sword is imitated.
Encountered a direct attack from the javelin, the Russians' position was a little confused.
For these ancient Estonian villagers, the "bear hunting javelin" they were proud of did not directly destroy the opponent's front, and even the opponent even completely destroyed the javelin. They received a great shock.
Arik roared in anger, and then all the soldiers roared in the same way.
The Estonian leader gritted his teeth and hurriedly ordered his men to throw another javelin, which was also the last round of javelin attack they had.
They chose to get as close as possible and run together, eager to give the javelin more momentum to achieve greater results.
They did this and really achieved some results.
The Ross soldiers in the first row experienced the greatest pressure. Fortunately, everyone's arms were very strong. They relied on their own strength, and even the help of their partners in the second and third rows, to withstand the momentum of the javelin.
Inevitable injuries still happen.
A Ross soldier's wall was scratched by the javelin head. Fortunately, it lost a lot of kinetic energy after breaking through the oak shield. Then it hit the soldier's leather coat and linen lining. It could no longer penetrate the soldier's flesh, but the internal injuries were caused instantly.
Congestion.
Several soldiers could no longer lift their shields with their arms. For the sake of morale and to avoid letting their companions see their dejection, they gritted their teeth and successfully retreated to the back row.
Arik noticed this and said, "Damn it, I will have to strengthen the defense of my arms and legs in future battles."
The Russians suffered a loss by not equipping the front-line "heavy infantry" with metal neck and wrist guards.
All tragedies, of course, stem from the enemy's damn javelin.
In Arik's concept, no matter how bloody the battle between the Rus and other tribes, the two sides rarely threw spears at each other, let alone such strange-looking javelins.
He himself had no idea about it, but Rurik had figured something out.
Several javelins falling from the sky landed not far from the "turtle shell" ordered by Yevlo. They were almost straight into the mud.
Yevluo breathed a sigh of relief: "They actually threw the javelin. Fortunately, they didn't hit us. Sir, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Stay alert."
Rurik clearly saw the entire javelin through the gap in the shield that formed the turtle shell.
A strong sense of familiarity directly made him feel that this world was too crazy.
"pilum?!"
Rurik couldn't believe his eyes.
"Sir, what did you say?" Jevro asked nervously.
"That weapon is a pilum. Why does it appear here?"
Jevro did not understand Latin, and he had no way of knowing that the master was talking about Roman javelins. This did not prevent him from making an explanation: "In fact, even we Finns will throw some javelins when fighting. We all use
This kind of weapon will bend the javelin head if it hits something hard."
"I know! Why is it here?! Forget it, leave it alone."
Rurik really didn't understand that those Roman javelins from the first century AD, which were obviously classic shapes, almost hit him in the ninth century. Could it be that these weapons could travel through time and space?!
Of course, the javelin has not traveled through time, because it was made by these Estonian tribes who occupied the pyrite. This is entirely because their ancestors had fought with the Roman army and learned a little bit in the war. They also suffered from the abuse of the Roman javelin.
, and now, they regard this object as the only magic weapon for hunting bears, and it is also a weapon for killing enemies in tribal wars.
The tribes in this area, or a combination of several villages, share an iron mine and elect the most powerful family as their leader. Compared to other tribes, because they control the iron mines, they can use iron relatively luxuriously.
quality weapons, such as javelins.
They had stocked up on more bear-hunting javelins. The leader heard that some Varyags were plotting evil intentions and learned that their opponents did not have many troops, so he did not lead all the men to carry as many weapons as possible, and counterattacked after a night.
In other words, the Estonian counterattack this time was an encounter in a sense. They did not make sufficient preparations, but they saw that their opponent did not have many troops, and they were huddled together like a turtle.
The leader no longer cares about the great results achieved by the two rounds of javelin (actually it seems useless). After all, he has no javelin at hand, so he can't throw away the iron spear as well?
The leader raised an iron sword and issued the order to attack across the board.
The Estonian villagers finally waited for the decisive moment to defend their homeland and resist the Varyag bandits. They almost tore their throats, holding their own weapons and charging from multiple directions with their heads blank, vowing to break the opponent's shield.
Wall front, and then rely on the absolute advantage of numbers to carry out the most cruel and ruthless fighting.
Seeing them charging, Arik felt secretly happy.
He remained calm and ordered: "Brothers, hold still and let them attack!"
"Hold your swords and stab them in the neck and stomach."
"Second row, smash their faces with your spears."
"Third row, smash their heads with your axes."
Arik briefly repeated the tactics again, and suddenly he felt that something was missing. He suddenly turned his head, and through the gap between the soldiers, he shouted at the rear: "Rurik, stupid brother, what are you still doing in a daze? Bring me."
Come with your people and protect our backs!"
Originally, Rurik thought that the heroic Arik could withstand the enemy's attack, but now it seems that the enemy has normal intelligence and plans to outflank him.
In other words, the opponent does not have clear tactics. They tend to instinctively look for loopholes and then attack fiercely, which naturally turns into a pincer offensive.
Arik couldn't help but say that Rurik would also lead the mercenaries as rearguards. Because all this was too similar to the siege of 800 Kovin people encountered on the frozen Oulu River half a year ago.
Just as the Estonians completed the encirclement, Jevlo not only threw his master into the safe area at the core of the shrinking Russian army formation, but also led all the mercenaries to complete the rearguard line.
The Russian shield walls were connected together to form a ring.
The Estonians were furious. They were obviously a group of undisciplined rabble, but their performance fully demonstrated what it means to be brave and ruthless.
Regardless of life or death, they actually showed up and threw their spears, and then jumped up onto the shield that the Russians raised above their heads, trying to lift the shield with their hands.
Some saw that the spearhead could not inflict enough damage on the opponent's shield, so they simply bumped into it.
Of course, this kind of death-seeking behavior by the enemy is exactly what Arik dreams of.
The current formation of the Russians is extremely rigid, but it is also the most effective tactic for dealing with unorganized enemies under the current situation. In short, as long as the Russians stabilize the current formation of the motionless turtle, they can
Victory. Because what sticks out from the gaps in the tortoise shell are bright white steel swords!
The blood of the bravest Estonian warriors splashed on the Russians through their shields.
The smell of blood greatly stimulated both sides. Seeing their companions killed in battle, the Estonians who followed became even more crazy.
What about the Rus warriors? They participated in the battle under the early morning light, that is, under the watchful eye of Odin, and the blood seemed to be a tribute to the warriors.
The swords and spears stabbed any enemy trying to get close to the shield wall.
Some Estonian soldiers even had their heads smashed by axes falling from the sky, or their faces were cut open.
Inside the shield, the Russians, whose faces were covered with sweat, were calm and composed, especially the soldiers in the first row. They squatted half-crouched, holding up the shields covering most of their torsos, and stabbed blindly with their swords. The soldiers in the second row were also busy.
They were so happy that their spearheads were dripping with blood.
The Russian "turtle" is simply indestructible.
The Estonians tried to find a breakthrough. They attacked from various places, resulting in the death of their companions one after another.
More than fifty of the bravest men in their prime were killed in the battle. The blood of the fallen seeped into the ground outside the village. A large number of corpses surrounded the enemy's shield wall, but the damn shield wall remained unmoved.
Now, the spirit of the brave men has been worn away. The Estonian soldiers were trembling with fear and began to retreat uncontrollably.
This scene also shocked their leader.
The war has turned out like this. Tribal wars will certainly kill people, but he has never seen a scene where his own people were killed on a large scale at the beginning of the battle.
"You are indeed Varyags, and you bandits really deserve your reputation!" The leader could only sigh with emotion now.
The leader thought of retreating, but it was not good for his face, and he was afraid that he would lose the support of the villages and be driven out due to defeat, and even his own family would be used as an outlet for his companions to vent and be persecuted.
Maybe if you work harder, you can break the Varyag's front?
The Estonian leader simply went to the front line in person. He kicked and beat many frightened young people, and scolded: "Didn't you hunt the bear? Why are you afraid now? Keep charging!"
Seeing that everyone was still hesitant, the leader became fierce. He bit off his shaky front teeth (after all, he was old). Without caring about a mouthful of blood, he called on his tribe with a ferocious expression: "Follow me and destroy them! Otherwise, all men will
If you die, all women and children will become slaves. Fight like a man to protect your family!"
Only Jevlo heard the last cry of grief and indignation from such a character, which was indeed very inspiring, but of no use.
The Russians did not simply sit back and wait for death.
Is the enemy about to launch a final blow?
Arik responded calmly: "Brothers! Push!"
The turtle's shell was deliberately loosened, and it returned to a semicircular offensive formation, slowly evolving toward the line.
The Russian soldiers roared "rua" rhythmically and made a "rua" sound with each step. Their strong discipline simply scared off many Estonian soldiers who regrouped and charged with their leader.
The leader was dumbfounded. He suddenly discovered that no matter what happened, there would be 200 people rushing behind him, but in the end, there were only more than 30 people accompanying him.
The other tribesmen were not just watching from the other side, they were frightened and gathered into a group at a loss.
Run away? Yes! Run away.
Estonians do not have a warrior culture. Seeing that the tribesmen are not cooperating, the leader thought that he would not have to die. Anyway, the people in this village ran away yesterday. Anyway, the Varyag people came to plunder property. As long as everyone fled with their belongings.
In the woods, can the enemy still chase us all year long?
"Everyone, run away! We have no chance."
The leader ordered a retreat, but the people who were at a loss saw that their charging companions were retreating with the leader, so of course they were the first to run away.
The retreat turned into a rout, and the best moment the Russians had been waiting for had arrived.
Arik gave an order: "Brothers! Chase me, Odin is watching us, kill the enemy!"
The tribesmen led by Arik want to kill people just because they believe that this can accumulate more achievements.
After all, these Estonians are also masters of forest life. Their running with light armor is really not something that Ross and other heavy infantry can catch up with. Moreover, they have resisted the impact of hundreds of people and have been fighting for a period of time. Most of them have eaten a little bit of what they made yesterday.
Wheatcake, now has very little physical strength. They want to pursue and achieve a complete victory, but their physical strength simply does not allow it.
Seeing that the guy with blood on his face who was obviously the commander was also running away, when he thought that a coward could actually command hundreds of people to fight? Why!
Arik casually grabbed a companion and said, "Brother, let me lend you your short spear."
The Rus warrior handed the boss his bloody spear without hesitation.
I saw Arik bending his body and throwing the universe. The spear, which was full of martial virtue, turned into a heavy javelin, directly smashing through the back of the Estonian leader from behind!
The leader of a federation of Estonian villages died in such a cowardly manner, and his death made Arik more powerful.
When the remaining Estonians saw that their leader had become the prey of the Varyags, they simply threw away their weapons and fled into the forest as fast as possible with their bare hands.
The core of their settlement ran wildly in order to notify their families to evacuate as soon as possible. Later, these thrown away iron swords, spearheads and axes all became the trophies of the Russians.
Yes, the only thing that can give them safety now is the dense forest.
Some Russian soldiers wanted to go deep into the forest, but they were stopped by Arik.
He pulled out the blood-stained spear and spat at the prone enemy leader, "You are a coward. I killed you from the back."
At this time, Rurik walked through the battlefield full of enemy corpses, approached his cousin, and asked as if nothing was wrong: "I thought you wanted to continue the pursuit?"
"Pursuit? I don't want to take risks in the forest. And you, brother, I thought you would be scared."
"I'm not afraid. I thought the enemy was very brave, but I didn't expect that they were not as good as the Kovin people who were conquered by us. They died at least nearly two hundred people before they escaped. Of course, they were almost all killed by our army."
Rurik's words were said carelessly, but in reality Arik felt offended.
"Alas, it seems that I am still not as good as my uncle. I still need more experience in war before I can become as brave and glorious as our leader."
Rurik didn't want to say any more: "Let's look at the reality. We don't have time to fight with them, and we don't have the strength to conquer them now. Brother, I know you want them to kneel in front of you."
Arik chuckled: "They are in this area. One day I will lead a large army to conquer them, just like I conquered the Kovin people. If you are treating those Kovin people well, it must be because the leader must have known that they were very brave before opening the net."
On the one hand. Oh, these guys are cowards and only deserve to be humble slaves."
"Stop talking, let's go, we will continue to run towards the east."
His brother was urging him. After thinking about it, Aric thought that he really didn't have time to stay any longer. He got everything he needed to grab. After doing some statistics, he found that the result of the whole battle was that five Russians had injured their arms and could not row.
, the remaining warriors are fully healthy.
There were more than eighty enemies lying on the ground, and the wailing wounded were all stabbed by the Russians. This is how ancient wars were done. The lone enemy wounded soldiers were basically stabbed to death regardless of their severity, with the euphemistic saying of "preventing them from suffering any more."
”.
At this moment, the sun has risen and the fog in the forest has completely dissipated. The Russians ate some prepared wheat cakes and threw the grabbed batch of wheat and the seized iron tools onto the ship. Of course, there was still some wheat.
What couldn't be taken away, in line with the principle that you can't eat it yourself and don't let others eat it, the linen bags containing wheat were thrown on the thatched roof of the Estonian wooden house.
This is a waste of natural resources!
The reason why Rurik didn't stop his companions from destroying the food was because the ship really couldn't carry that much.
The three Ross ships were pushed to the sea by the gentle river water. They had stored enough drinking water and a large amount of food, and the subsequent journey was worry-free.
Rurik opened his eyes wide and looked at the village behind that was burning with fire. He felt complicated and didn't know what to say.
"Maybe I did something wrong. But if we failed in that war, I would also be a slave to the Estonians."
Rurik turned his little head back, and soon the ship rounded a big bend, and saw thick smoke and dust rising from the forest in the distance, and the Russians on the ship were talking and laughing.
Ahead is the Gulf of Finland, which will later become Tallinn Bay.
The place where the smoke burned has been recorded by the Russians, and it is natural to conquer them.