Rurik and Arik brothers divided the army into two, and Rurik, who commanded the main force, was already arranging his troops.
The Ross army on the grassland quickly formed a wide formation of about 200 meters with a slightly concave arc.
All the crossbowmen, they stand in the first row of the array.
The rest of the people, such as Rus' and Novgorod people, carried their own weapons and formed a formation of only three rows with relatively thin distances between people.
Only Rurik himself was guarded by a small group of elite trusted mercenaries. The position where he sat had the highest concentration of soldiers.
As for the specific layout of the formation, the Russian warriors were mainly arranged on the wings of the formation, and the Novgorod men with spears were in the middle.
There are a large number of spears with blue and white tassels standing in the middle of the army. Can their momentum bring a spiritual shock to the enemy?
However, the elite strength of this formation is mainly concentrated on the two wings.
The Russian warriors, their axes and swords kept rubbing against their shields, stared unruly at the forest not far away.
Most of the soldiers in Novgorod are farmers from the White Tree Manor, and the flag captain Medvet is also the successor of the manor owner.
The Slavic peasant soldiers ushered in their first battle, and it was also their first time against another group of Varyags. Fighting side by side with the Rosvaryags, do the brothers have enough courage?
Medvit noticed that many of his men's young warriors' legs were shaking, and there was even strange water flowing out of their crotches.
He pinched a very young warrior hard and encouraged: "Child, don't be afraid, you will be as brave as the Russians. Think about what rewards the Russians will give you if you defeat the enemy."
The soldier stared forward, trying to bravely grab the three-meter-long spear.
Their spears are all made of blackened chromium iron, which is extremely hard and will never curl when thrusting or slashing!
The swords and axes of the Ross warriors are all made of carbon steel. After being quenched, it is impossible for the curled blade to bend. For them, there is no need for any training. These most elite Ross warriors are all heroes in the melee. They
Everyone knows their mission, and all it takes is Lord Rurik to issue the battle order.
However, the Slavs are different. Medvit, Rurik's destined brother-in-law, is now wearing a Russian iron helmet that covers half of his face, dressed like a Russian warrior, and holding a steel sword in his hand.
Instructions were given in Old Slavonic before the battle.
After all, they were all inspiring words, and Rurik didn't seem to interrupt at all. He stood at the core of the array, riding on the shoulders of a strong mercenary warrior, looking at the movement in the woods.
The mercenary was a little impatient: "Sir, we have been standing here for a long time. Brothers are eager to kill the enemy. Do we want to continue to wait and see?"
"you are tired?"
"No, sir. I just want to chop off the enemy's head."
Rurik was not impressed by this flattery. He noticed that the traces of Arik and the outflanking force of 300 men had completely disappeared, and finally made up his mind.
"Now, put me down!"
The time has come!
Rurik suddenly rushed to the front of the formation. He drew his sword and roared at his men: "Roar! Knock the shield as hard as you can! Keep shouting!"
He shouted the same order in Norse, Old Slavic, and Old Finnish, and everyone who received the order roared in challenge.
More than 700 men shouted at the top of their lungs, and the crisp sound from banging shields intensified the sound.
The many sounds were mixed together, and it completely suppressed the sound of the wind. By the time it reached the woods, it had turned into a terrifying rumble.
What's rumbling?!
Siegfast's Gotland army just wanted to have a good rest. They had just woken up en masse and quickly resumed burning the nearly extinguished bonfire. A large number of cut pine branches were thrown into the fire, and for a while there was thick smoke.
They were busy heating up the cold dried meat, or munching on wheat cakes made from leftover grains.
They never noticed the appearance of the army. When the rumble came, everything became clear.
Some Gotland warriors determined the direction from which the terrifying sound was coming. They ran like crazy to the edge of the forest, and were shocked to see that the entire army was actually arrayed. Look at this array, it was really a huge army!
They panicked and ran back to the camp in the forest, rolling and crawling in front of the commander Sigfast.
"Chief! It's the Russians! The main force of the Russians is here, and they are roaring."
"Sure enough, it's really them?! It turns out they were the ones yelling randomly, which made me a little bit rude."
Siegfast was indeed startled and overwhelmed by the roar at first. His men reported that it was the Russians who were attacking, but his attitude changed in a second.
He arranged his clothes and put on his helmet urgently.
He called his mighty general Grund and all the Danish mercenaries, and this group of the most elite mercenary warriors was assembled one after another.
"Grund, we are indeed lucky. I successfully encountered the main force of the Ross army. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I will lead you to defeat them! I want to become the hero of Visby!"
Grund put on a shocked face! His shock was from two aspects. Firstly, the old Danish mercenary had just seen the huge Russian army formation with his own eyes, and instinctively judged that this was a powerful enemy. Secondly,
Later, he was also shocked by Siegfast's blind credibility.
"Sir, do you think we can defeat them easily?"
"Isn't it? We defeated them once, and now we can win a second time." Sigfast still spoke with a smile, and his confidence drove Grund crazy.
"You... better go and see for yourself! If you join the army stupidly, everyone will die!"
"What did you say?!" Sigfast suddenly burst into anger: "Do you want us to lose?"
"No, I hope you recognize the reality. I really don't know who gave you the surge, was it Odin?"
"It's Frey!" Siegfast pushed Grund away and called out to other warriors: "Gotland warriors, the main force of the Russians have appeared! Now follow me to kill them and die.
Take revenge on those who were killed!”
People with strong hatred have unparalleled brute force! Of course, it is only brute force.
The Russian army is ravaging the pastures in the center of the island, and herders cannot graze. Then the wool and leather industries that maintain Gotland's economy will wither, and everyone will have a hard time.
The very appearance of the Russian army will cut off the livelihood of all islanders! What's more, many soldiers do have relatives who died in the attacks of the Russians in the past few years.
Grund looked at the back of the islanders who were rushing to the battlefield with a group of people who were not afraid of death, and sarcastically said, "The courage Frey gave you? Is it the courage that gave you the courage in your lower body?"
His fellow Danish mercenaries laughed.
"Hey, what are you idiots laughing at?!"
"Brother, our sponsor did find a bunch of women and gave birth to a bunch of illegitimate children. He is indeed loved by Frey, hahaha!"
Grund forced a smile, then pulled out his sword and put on a dull face: "Fre, the protector of fertility, also blesses the merchants, but warriors must revere Odin. Let's go! Brothers, we fight under the sun,
This battlefield may be our destination. It would be great if a raven appeared."
The Danish mercenaries gathered together and quickly unified their attitude. In this battle, they decided to fight smartly and obey the command of the boss Grund.
If the Gotland army can fight a smooth battle, the brothers will follow with all their might. If they lose, the brothers will retreat quickly. If there is no way to retreat, then they will fight to the last man.
A large number of Gotland warriors came out of the forest with their weapons and equipment.
Almost all of them were wearing armor, and the wooden shields they carried were painted colorfully, and the guys on their hands were also of various types.
When he officially saw the Ross army in formation, Siegfast almost lost all his confidence in that moment.
"Damn it, why are there so many roaring Russians? Although there are not three thousand people, it is still too many!" He gritted his teeth and could not issue combat orders before the Danish mercenaries entered the queue.
Now the two armies can finally look at each other. Rurik stands alone at the front of the Ross army. He pinches his waist and curls his lips, shaking his head. "This is your main force? A bunch of rabble."
Indeed, when the Ross Army looked at it, it was really a sea of blue and white.
The elite of the Russian army were dispatched in this battle, and almost every soldier had a uniform uniform.
The Russian army essentially had standard military uniforms, and with such a strong visual impact, every Gotland soldier began to doubt themselves.
The Gotland warriors paid attention to the attitude of their leader Sigfast. Many of them had the idea of retreating, and they all saw the leader holding his sword high.
"Shield wall! Now!"
There is no way, he is a prince, and if he wins the war, he himself will be the king. He intends to fight, and the brothers can only use the existing troops and the main force of Russia to fight a "decisive battle" with unequal forces.
Yes, Siegfast and his men have naturally regarded the Russian army in a wide formation as the main force. All the Russians who have landed on the island are here. After defeating them, the entire island is safe.
The warriors gathered together, shields stacked on top of each other.
The most elite Danish mercenaries stood in the first row. Each of them wore chainmail and had a black raven painted on their shields. Compared with the others, the Danish mercenaries' shapes became unified due to the shield pattern.
.
The Gotland army barely numbered 400 people. About a hundred of them stood in a row in four dense formations, shouting slogans rhythmically, and slowly advanced towards the Ross army.
But Rurik still stood in front of the formation, with dry grass covering most of his body.
He stared at the approaching enemy with both eyes, and stretched out his right arm to hold the crossbowman in order not to shoot rashly.
"Calm down! Frazier, Kejas, Mechasta, stay alert! Watch my gestures!"
Rurik was waiting for the best opportunity. In order to highlight the power of the shooter, he decided to bring the enemy as close as possible.
However, suddenly there was a whooshing sound in the sky!
It's three crossbow arrows, they are actually...
Rurik was shocked. He raised his head and saw three arrows whizzing past his head. He squatted down in the grass and witnessed the arrows flying over the Russian army array and landing on the grass behind.
"Damn it! Arik, our crossbow was captured by them!" Rurik was angry. Important tactical weapons were taken away. The enemy must pay the price, but the tactics cannot be messed up.
Apparently the enemy didn't know the correct usage of equipment and weapons! They actually fired at inappropriate times.
Rurik still stood still, which made Metastas, the Kovan man, anxious.
There was a roar in Old Finnish: "My lord, there are only a hundred steps left! Longbow..."
"Shut up! Keep waiting!" Rurik roared with bared teeth.
The Russian army was still standing still. As the enemy approached, Rurik had already withdrawn into the formation.
Looking back at the advancing Gotland army, the short archers among them began to throw arrows.
Their arrows were so weak that the Russian troops raised their wooden shields one after another, including the Novgorod warriors holding spears. They raised their left arms. The oak shields captured from the White Sands Harbor Army were now sent with big guns.
use.
Gotland fired a round of arrows, which caused no real damage to the Russian army except for scratching the bodies of two unlucky men.
Neither Siegfast nor Grund knew what the Russians wanted to do. Could it be that they lined up and stood there like a forest, waiting for a close encounter?
The Gotland army was ready to fight the enemy. The soldiers lined up in a denser formation, even shoulder to shoulder. Their hands almost crushed the wooden handle of the axe, and the right hand holding the sword was trembling due to nervousness.
The well-trained Russian soldiers still stood still. Rurik himself was already covered in sweat. He was also making a gamble!
Because he is the only one who understands how terrifying it is to fire a steel-armed crossbow at close range.
The crossbowmen with steel arms and wooden arms knelt on one knee and continued to aim, with their fingers touching the trigger.
The long archers of Kewen and the short wooden archers stood with as many as ten arrows stuck on the ground in front of them.
At first, Siegfast had no idea that the Russians had organized a large number of archers. The teams on both sides were only about fifty meters away. He could clearly see the "beasts" covered by withered grass.
Rurik was young, and his nervous eyes were already bloodshot.
His eyeballs were about to burst out. Seeing the fighter jet that he had been holding back for a long time, he suddenly roared, "hjutar!"
The crossbowmen, who were going crazy, shot at the same time!
More than two hundred arrows were fired at the Gotland army in an instant.
Those Danish mercenaries standing at the forefront had their heavy oaken shields chipped open by crossbow arrows! Those were conical crossbow arrows designed to break armor!
The arrow clusters made of quenched carbon steel penetrated shields, easily pierced their chainmail and leather armor, and penetrated deeply into their flesh.
This damage is not much different from that of a spearhead piercing the body, and the Gotland Army soldiers in the first row were not hit by an arrow!
From a distance of less than fifty meters, the steel-armed crossbow shot at the opponent's dense formation, and Rurik succeeded in maximizing the output he hoped for.
This was a battle of willpower and organization, and obviously the Russians won from the beginning!
Half of the Danish mercenaries died in an instant. Their leader Grund did not realize what happened at all. His own helmet was directly blown off by the arrow, causing a large red and swollen bump to quickly appear on the side of his head.
As many as seventy soldiers were hit by arrows on the spot, and only a few of those who were hit by arrows clenched their teeth and stood tenaciously.
The advance of the Gotlanders has been suspended, and the first row of their four-row formation has collapsed, hasn't it?!
Rurik was overjoyed, but he was not carried away.
Seeing his opponent's momentary confusion, he ordered: "Archer draws sword! Swordsman! Spearman! Impact!"
There is no point in firing a second salvo at all.
The Kewen archers began to demonstrate their short-range rapid-fire skills, that is, they held multiple arrows in their right hands and placed the arrows on the outside of the bow. A young and powerful leader like Mechasta could not fault his rapid-fire skills.
.
The once precious iron cluster arrows now have a crazier version, and the Kewen people can squander them as much as they want. So when the melee troops were fighting with the enemy, the Kewen soldiers alone fired more than 400 arrows quickly.
Up to eighty more Gotlandic warriors were injured or killed in varying degrees, and their shields were also filled with arrow clusters, preventing the Gotlandic army from responding quickly.
Sigfast had lost all courage, and his men all remembered the horror of being killed by Ross's arrows at sea.
The morale of the Gotland Army was already shaken. They saw their commander, Prince Siegfast, having an arrow drilled into the iron plate of the crazy iron cabinet. Many people felt that the commander's head had been pierced.
Siegfast didn't even have the heart to pull out this ridiculous arrow cluster, he really didn't have a chance.
The fight between the two armies began. This should have been his most confident moment, but when the fight actually started, the outcome of the battle was completely unexpected.
The Russian army fought according to the plan.
Three hundred Slavic spearheads moved forward in unison. They experienced the rigorous training of "killing if they don't obey orders" on Tombstone Island, and are now well-trained in fierce battles. Those young people who were once afraid of actual combat
The Slavic warriors found that the battle was so smooth and they instantly gained strong self-confidence.
Rurik was also worried that this group of Slavs would have a tendency to escape, and wanted to let elite mercenaries suppress them at the critical moment. Apparently he was worried too much, or he thought too highly of the Gotlanders.
Rurik's current tactics were essentially a preview for the future decisive battle. Based on this battle, he also made changes on a whim.
He was particularly familiar with a regional decisive battle between the British and French armies in North America during the Seven Years' War. The British army stood in line and endured the continuous firing of the French army. When the French army was only 20 meters away, the French army had already
The bayonets were moved forward, and the British suddenly opened fire.
At such a close distance, the so-called poor accuracy of the muskets did not matter. The British army fired only one salvo, and eight hundred French troops were killed. The remaining French troops collapsed and were defeated.
Rurik tried his best to let the crossbowmen show their power at extremely close range, and he can say that his imitation has achieved good results.
Let’s look at the current battle situation! A scaled-down version of the pincer offensive was really successful. The deliberately concave formation is making the concavity worse. Now the Ross melee infantry on both wings are close to the opponent’s flanks.
The Gotlanders had to huddle together and retreat slowly.
Finally, the spear wall of the Slavic flag team came over!
The Slavs roared in a language that Siegfast could not understand, and stabbed wildly with their black spearheads, making the shields of the Gotland warriors tired of dealing with them. They could resist the thrusts of several spears, but their opponents could not
Four hundred spears!
On both wings of the Gotland army, the elite sword-and-shielders of the Ross family were slashing and killing like crazy, forcing them to shrink toward the center. The more this happened, the more tactical opportunities it would give the Slavic warriors.
The wall of spears kept poking the opponent to death, the army continued to advance, and Rurik himself began to step on the horrific corpses of the enemy to advance the army.
This is no longer a battle, but a unilateral massacre by the Ross army with absolute superiority.
"How brave of you, why don't you collapse even after this? Damn it, wouldn't Arik lose a single head in this case?"
Rurik had already estimated that his soldiers would completely annihilate the Gotland army, and their morale finally collapsed.
The Gotlanders actually discovered that the Russians actually wanted to surround everyone, and they would never survive even if they were surrounded. Siegfast made a difficult and shameful decision: "Brothers, let's withdraw!"
After receiving the order, Grund took the lead in running away with a dozen of his Danish mercenaries who were still alive. Siegfast simply threw away his heavy helmet and shield, and carried his expensive iron inlaid with gems.
Sword, follow the footsteps of the Danish mercenaries. As for your Gotland compatriots, everyone should run away quickly. How long you can survive depends on your own destiny.
There were only a hundred survivors left in the Gotland army who could escape, and some unlucky ones were hit by arrows thrown from the longbows of the Ross army. They subconsciously ran towards the woods, hoping that the cover of the woods would provide an opportunity to escape.
However, the 300 elite soldiers of Rus led by Arik had already taken control of the Gotland army's camp. With a savage smile, Arik held a sword in his right hand and organized a shield wall, watching the enemies rush over in a panic.