Chapter 454 The owner of the Raven Shield has defected
Siegfast, the commander-in-chief of the Gotland army, ran away with the remaining hundreds of soldiers.
Those who ran the fastest had just arrived at the camp in the forest, and were instantly fired upon by terrible and accurate crossbow arrows.
Aric stands like a pine tree, the sword he holds tightly in his right hand points directly at the enemy.
Without any slogans, he just made this action, and the Russian soldiers who were waiting for work held the crossbow and started shooting. Although the light wooden crossbow has poor power storage, it is also effective against lightly armored targets.
More than a dozen Gotland warriors were hit by arrows and fell to the ground. The others waited in astonishment and saw clearly the Russian troops who had already lined up the shield wall.
Look at these enemies, they are all uniformly dressed, the woods are a blue and white wall, they are indestructible.
"Cut your crossbow! Swordsman! Attack!"
Arik gave the order, and his soldiers shouted chants in the same rhythm, advancing like a wall towards the fleeing Gotland army.
Siegfast was so overwhelmed that he dropped his sword to the ground.
He staggered down to pick up the sword, but he didn't expect to stand up as soon as he fell down.
The defeat of this Gotland army was inevitable. With an unshakable wall in front of them and a large group of Russian troops chasing them behind, the Gotlanders had completely lost the chance to break out and escape.
Do you want to run around in the wild grass? It will become a moving target for Ross's archers.
Grund's knee pressed directly on Siegfast's back, and he shouted in Danish Norse dialect: "Brothers! Don't give up your life to them! We are rebelling!"
When the boss spoke like this, the living Danish mercenary clenched his sword and suddenly stabbed the Gotlander in front of him.
Siegfast watched as one of his men was stabbed in the back in an incredible way. The perpetrator was actually his trusted mercenary?!
He bared his teeth and tried to get up, but he couldn't get up at all. He yelled: "Grund, you are a traitor. You are betraying the king, you are betraying me. You are... the dog of the Russians!"
"That's better than dying as a coward." Grund felt a little guilty. At this point, he could only go all the way to the end.
"You! Don't you care about honor? How can a mercenary betray his sponsor?"
"No, I didn't betray. I didn't betray the Danish people, so that's not betrayal. Now, my brothers and I are looking for the Russians to continue making money."
The Danish mercenaries were motionless, they were completely in a defensive posture. As for the Gotland warriors, their futile resistance quickly collapsed under the attack of the Russian army.
"No mercy! Brothers, the time for revenge has come!" Arik ordered loudly, and his soldiers knew what to do.
The Gotland Army soldiers present were all mortal enemies. With their absolute superiority in strength, the Russians quickly annihilated this group of enemies.
However, those people holding raven-patterned shields actually formed a circular defense line. They didn't look like they were going to attack, nor did they intend to defend. It was as if the fight in front of them had nothing to do with them.
A Ross warrior who attacked rashly rushed forward. After a fight, the Ross warrior was kicked out with a big kick. The armored warrior holding a raven shield obviously had no killing intention.
Many of the challengers were expelled. They were not injured, and the blood on their bodies came from fallen Gotland Army soldiers.
It stands to reason that the three hundred elite Ross warriors would have overwhelmed these ten people like a mudslide. Everyone did not do this, but kept a distance of about ten bodies from the enemy and waited inexplicably.
Arik was squeezed out of the ring and cursed: "What are you doing? Destroy all the enemies, hurry up!"
Then, he ordered his men to clear a way and enter the ring formation.
Look at the uniform raven shield and the trusty chain mail worn by the warrior.
"Ah! I know you! Elite soldiers of the Gotland army, you beat me so badly!" As he spoke, Arik almost bit his lip, and the order to gather and kill them was about to come out.
At the critical moment, Grund stepped out of his own formation.
He knelt down on one knee in front of Aric, placed his sword and shield on the ground, and finally took off his iron helmet.
This is an act of surrender from a warrior!
The enemy's elite was actually like this. Arik immediately changed his tone and said, "You...are you going to surrender? Who are you?"
"My name is Grund, Grund of Vattel, Denmark."
"What? You...are Danish?"
"We are indeed Danes." Grund raised his head, his bearded face unchanged. He described the location of the Vattel settlement, which was in a small bay called Jutland.
, the tribe is indeed part of the Dane Alliance.
Aric had blue veins on his face and said harshly: "In this case, you deserve to die even more."
Grund had no fear, or in other words, fear in the current situation was meaningless. He looked calm: "If death in battle is my fate, we can accept it. Running away and fighting are meaningless. You Russians are powerful.
Opponent. I had no intention of being your enemy. I was just following the orders of my sponsor! Now, I have decided to bring my brothers to join you."
"What?" Arik looked up to the sky and laughed, and then looked down on the guy kneeling on one knee: "You want to surrender to us? Are you worthy?"
"We are willing to be warriors under the strong, and..." Grund gave his men a hint, and the unlucky Sigfast was escorted out and held tightly by the Danish mercenaries.
During yesterday's daytime battle, Arik never saw the face of the Gotland commander clearly, but the clothes he wore were very gorgeous, which impressed him deeply.
The guy who was pushed to the ground was the idiot who made the rude remarks yesterday.
"This thing is not dead yet! It's so good." Arik was overjoyed. He held his sword and stepped directly on Siegfast's face with one foot.
Such an insult made the man angry and cursed: "Arik from Russia, you are not only a coward, but also a despicable coward. And you, Grund, you are a dirty traitor."
Siegfast could still curse now, but soon he was screaming heartbreakingly.
It was Arik. He carried out his words. If he caught the leader of Gotland, he must torture him to death.
The tendons in Siegfast's hands were severed. Although he did not bleed much, the current witchcraft-like Nordic medicine would not allow the tendons to be reattached. The hands holding the sword were already disabled.
"Shout! Idiot! In the end, you will be made into a blood eagle!"
Upon hearing the term "blood eagle", Siegfast trembled all over, and then everyone present smelled a foul smell.
The leader of the Gotlanders was actually scared to death, making the Russian soldiers laugh.
The enemy leader now looked like he was today. The enemy's elite knelt down and wanted to surrender. Arik's anger disappeared in an instant.
A Ross soldier gave a key reminder, and Arik temporarily stopped: "Okay! You Danes, I am Arik of Ross. You have been captured. Now put down your weapons and wait for our Duke of Ross to be punished. You have caught
Leader of the Gotlanders, everyone will survive because of this credit. If you can tell the detailed information about Visby, maybe the Duke will admit your surrender."
Hearing this, the Danish mercenary soldiers disarmed.
Grund was betting that the Russians would listen to him in times of crisis.
The opponents were uniformly dressed, and their combat methods were meticulous and effective. They actually looked a bit like the Frankish army. Grund had heard many legends about Charlemagne in his hometown, especially those Saxon refugees who crossed the border wall. They described the Frankish army.
, is an iron helmet and a blue gown, fights uniformly, and makes good use of cavalry and archers.
The geographical limitation is that there are only a very small number of ponies in Gotland. Horses do not exist in other places, and even if they do exist, they cannot be ridden.
The Russians had no horses, and they were well-trained in fighting. With this army, Visby was only a few days away from being captured.
Grund won the bet, the Russians were fierce but reasonable, and all the Danish mercenaries were spared death and were not humiliated.
The main battlefield of this outpost battle was already filled with the corpses of Gotland army soldiers, and those who were dying were killed by the Ross army.
The soldiers had already begun to collect the enemy's corpses, although everyone felt that Rurik's order was a bit redundant.
It is the right way to collect the corpses of our fallen soldiers and cremate them. But the enemy's corpses are scattered all over the huge battlefield. Does the winner deserve to be tortured? Just stop the corpses in the wilderness!
Rurik still issued the order, and the people who did it were mainly Kovans and Slavs.
At first glance, the current Medvet is obviously a Varangian warrior, but his Slavic language is revealed. The Slavic warrior from Novgorod tasted an unprecedented victory, and the Slavic spear wall poked
A large number of Gotland Varyags died, and now they are collecting the bodies of their opponents!
The bloody corpses with ferocious faces were dragged away and began to be piled into small mounds.
The arrows on the corpse and the enemy's weapons were all recovered. Leather boots, blood-stained linen clothes, damaged armor, and even key iron helmets, chainmail, and useful cowhide belts...
The Slavic and Kovin warriors took every possible thing from the enemy and took away everything available from the enemy. The stacked corpses were like the white sand dunes on the forest grass, which was so dazzling and weird.
Rurik himself pardoned all Danish prisoners who should have been executed.
Is there anything more magical than being pardoned by a beautiful boy with blond hair?
Grund and his brothers knelt down in a row to accept the pardon. At the same time, they had to face the fact that Siegfast's Gotland army was defeated by such a young boy commanding the army.
.
He slowly raised his head and looked at Rurik's beautiful face: "Could it be that you are the Duke of the Russians?"
"Yes! No. Not for the time being, but in the future." Rurik's words were a bit ambiguous. Seeing the other party's confusion, he explained: "The Duke of Ross is leading the follow-up two thousand troops. Soon, they will enter
This battlefield. I am Rurik, the son of the Duke, blessed by Odin, the commander of the Russian army, and Visby is destined to surrender at my feet. Do you hold the raven shield? Now, I am the one they deserve.
Master. Because I am the one loved by Odin."
These words are really domineering and should not be said by a child.
But the reality is unreasonable, and Grund had to accept this reality - the Russian army did have 3,000 soldiers, and when they landed on the island, the Gotlanders had already been defeated.
For Rurik, the Danish surrender was a surprise.
Generally speaking, Rurik has a strong resistance to killing prisoners. The elite among the prisoners, or those with the strongest will to resist, should be killed. As for ordinary prisoners, it is the most cost-effective to be promised to work as slaves for ten years in order to redeem themselves.
.
But these Danes are different!
In terms of feelings, Rurik himself has no hatred for the Danes, he just follows the trend and is against them. The entire Sveian tribal alliance is against the Danes, and now the alliance has become the Kingdom of Sweden dominated by the Malaren people, then
Directly started a war against the Danish forces.
Can the people of Malaren be considered reliable allies? No! They are just business partners. They forced the Russians to move from the north of Lake Malaren to the current Rossburg. These guys were the main instigators.
A long time ago, the Rus would also go to the Uppsala Temple (controlled by the Uppsala tribe to worship Odin, Umber, and Thora. The name Uppsala also comes from the gods they worshiped) to make sacrifices.
, after being expelled, the Rus entered a bitter cold land, and any belief gave way to the worship of Odin. Only Odin can bless everyone to withstand the blow of the cold.
After experiencing so many things in Melalen, Rurik really didn't have much affection for the nobles of Melalen. He was just greedy for the oats, linen and wool of the Melalen people.
Since the original intention of these Danes is to be paid as mercenaries, great! This group of people can take advantage of them.
It's just use.
They betrayed and captured their master as a sign of surrender, and they were more interested in reporting everything they knew about Visby. These guys betrayed their sponsors. After this first time, wouldn't there be someone else?
The second time?
They can never become confidants, but they can become the intelligence tools currently needed by the Russian army.
Based on these thoughts, the raven shields of the Danes were confiscated. They would not be slaves, but they would not be armed in any way. These people would not be on the front line of the battle in the future.
Rurik needed them to provide key intelligence. After Otto arrived with a large force, it was up to these Danes to explain the situation in Visby clearly.
As for that Siegfast...
Most of the Russian soldiers had already rested on the spot. The Slavs and Covins who were carrying the dead bodies gathered together with the field trophies they had obtained, and sat together happily talking and laughing.
The old rule is that soldiers should keep the common weapons and equipment captured on the battlefield and keep their belongings by themselves, while the valuables should be handed over to the commander-in-chief.
The Slavs and Kovins, the warriors themselves were fellow villagers. Since they knew each other, the spoils they captured were exchanged internally with the fellow villagers. There was no need for Rurik to interfere. For example, the Slavs, these warriors
By relying on the capture, not only did their weapons and equipment level improve, but now they all wore leather boots, and their bloody armor, mail, and linen were washed clean in the stream, and their defense capabilities were also improved.
There are no warriors here who are all dressed in cloth, and some warriors are in mail armor. The equipment level of the Slavic warriors is highly unified, and the combat power level of the entire flag team has been comprehensively improved. The same is true for the Kovin people, but they care more about archery, so they
The Gotlanders had completely stripped away their little archer equipment. Look at the brothers! Everyone's string-controlling hands wore very finely sewn leather gloves (an excellent product of Viking craftsmen), and deer bones were used to hook the strings.
The wrench fingers are also put on the gloves. Archers no longer have to worry about palm abrasions.
In this case, is there any point in keeping Siegfast, the commander of the Gotlanders?
Yes! Of course there is.
It would be too hasty to kill a noble guy hastily, or for Arik to threaten to be executed as a blood eagle.
I won't kill him for the time being, but the physical pain will be inevitable.
Siegfast had his front teeth knocked out, and was beaten with bruises and bruises by the Russian warriors. He was hung on a tree, lost all his gorgeous clothes, and his upper body was covered with hair. Aric stabbed him with the tip of his sword, which was bleeding.
Words spelled out with runes.
The onlookers of the Ross warriors applauded this barbaric venting of anger. If Arik hadn't requested that this venting of anger should be done by himself, Siegfast would have had all his skin cut off alive with one knife at a time.
The battlefield was basically clean, and a large amount of blood stains could be clearly detected on the crushed dead grass.
Those white sand-like corpses had been covered with a large number of newly cut pine trees, and the surrounding weeds had been cleared by the Russians and stacked in the "wooden tower" that needed to be burned.
One description of the so-called pit killing is that the dead bodies on the battlefield are piled up in a large pit and buried collectively, while the other is that they are piled up and covered with soil to make an open-air grave.
In Jutland, which is the main gathering area of Danes, most Danish tribes practice mounds made of earth in the open air. The tomb of the noble chief was simply piled into a "pyramid" made of earth. The tribes died in battles.
Soldiers are treated in the same way.
Is this considered a temple building? Rurik didn’t know much about the Danish sacrificial and funeral customs.
He cremated the dead according to the custom of the Russians. It would take a long time to process so many dead bodies.
None of the cremated dead were from the Rus' army.
Using the right tactics and attacking at the right time, it is normal for the Russian army to achieve such a crazy battle loss ratio.
Rurik is not proud, and he will not be excited by the blood of his enemies. He just wants to win the decisive battle as soon as possible and take away what he really needs - various materials that make the Ross tribe rich, and a hegemony.
The main force of the Russian army finally arrived on the battlefield. At this moment, the large tombs piled with firewood were already ablaze, and a large amount of frightening smoke was rising.
The soaring smoke column became the best symbol, and Otto's Ross follow-up troops slowly arrived on the battlefield.