Chapter 523: The Gospel of Lindisfarne is More Exalted than Gold and Silver
The defenders, whose spirits were almost broken, resisted in vain against more and more invaders. They soon lost their garrison on the city wall, allowing the following Viking warriors to climb ladders and climb over more smoothly.
These Balmok Vikings fought their first real siege battle, and victory was already within their grasp.
The most ordinary warriors also had the urge to possess the gold mountain and kick the gold into their arms. They all felt that there must be a mountain of gold and silver hidden in the spire monastery stacked with neat stones.
The centurion of the defenders, who was once very brave, also lost his fighting spirit after the stone wall was breached by the enemy. He was chopped off with an ax in the futile resistance, ending everything.
The officers have become soldiers, and the resistance of their comrades has no effect!
The last twenty or so people alive rushed into the monastery with the priests, and the thick solid wood door was tightly closed.
The archbishop looked tragically at the towering cross in the room, knelt on the burlap mat, and prayed sadly while holding the parchment he took out of the gold box.
The monastery is like a ball cage, and the entire tidal island is a ball cage.
Priests and soldiers, more than fifty people gathered together. They prayed to God for salvation in the tragic moment. Unfortunately, in the eyes of the Vikings, these guys were just a group of cowardly rabbits hiding in caves, or fat pigs in the sheepfold.
sheep.
All buildings outside the monastery were searched by the invading Vikings, and anyone hiding was hacked to death. Only the violent and bloodthirsty barbarians were left in the entire outdoors.
Biyongni's heart was beating wildly. He was very angry that he was already standing within the stone wall but did not get the gold and silver immediately.
However, the brothers had already seized a batch of ironware and cloth, and these materials were still valuable when brought back to their hometown.
"Brothers! Follow me! Smash the wooden door!" He roared and led the charge with a crossbow.
More than fifty soldiers under Biyongni responded immediately. Among them, the strong men armed with heavy axes began to smash the wooden doors.
Sawdust was flying everywhere, and the situation became increasingly abnormal.
After a while, Geiger and his men also participated in the final fierce battle. Seeing his brother's procrastination, the eager man directly yelled: "Are your men hungry? Why don't you have the strength to break the door open?"
"Don't say sarcastic words! This door is extremely hard, let your people smash it down together."
"Okay. Hey! Let's break them open. How do we divide the property inside?"
Biyongni smiled wantonly: "Of course the brothers robbed based on their abilities. Listen, whoever robs will get it. We brothers can't fight among themselves."
Geiger nodded, raised his small hand ax high and shouted at the brothers behind him: "Men of Washebi, break down the door for me! Whoever grabs the property inside will belong to him."
More than 20 soldiers with two-handed wood-cutting axes began to smash the door, but they did not know that the wooden door of Lindisfarne Abbey was its last line of defense. It was rare in Northumbria that it had been kept in the dark for an unknown period of time.
The wooden door was made of hardened oak, and multiple bolts were inserted into the back of the door.
The strong men were sweating profusely, but the damage done to this door was like scraping.
"Are we going to smash down the sunset?" Geiger said with a helpless expression on his face.
Biyongni thought of a countermeasure: "Brother, ask your people to follow me."
"You? Have a plan?"
[Benefits for book friends] You can get cash or coins by reading books, and iPhone12 and switch are waiting for you! Follow the vx official account [Book Friends Base Camp] to get it!
"Come with me quickly."
A group of soldiers who were besieging the monastery ran to the stone wall city gate. They already knew that the reason why the siege vehicles could not break through the gate was because there were a lot of stones and other debris piled in the doorway.
Biyonyi was already carrying stones, and he shouted to the men: "Only Rurik's weapons can knock down the wooden door. Brothers, move away the debris and let the siege trucks come in!"
Everyone roared, and all kinds of debris were cleaned up at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In the end, due to the excellent effect of climbing the ladder to break the city, the stone wall gate that had been idle was directly knocked open by the siege truck.
At the same time, Rurik, who was waiting for the good news at the rear, saw this moment keenly.
"They are finally done!" Jevro pointed his sword pointedly, "Sir, it's time for us to go in."
Rurik nodded and pulled Paul, who was in a close combat mood, frightened and very guilty, to his side.
What on earth was the captured grain officer thinking? Rurik had already guessed it.
In the people's concept of this era, the Kingdom of Northumbria was just the kingdom of the king, and it had almost only tax and military protection relations with ordinary subjects. The subjects dared to escape if they felt that their lives were unsustainable or they did not want to live as serfs.
However, it is difficult for them to give up their beliefs and deny the three views that have been shaped since birth. Of course, they are even more afraid of falling into hell.
Rurik couldn't care less and gave a serious order: "Now! I want to enter the monastery! You have to lead the way for me."
"Ah! I'm... not familiar with this place."
"It doesn't matter. I want you to help me find the holy objects! Listen, I'm not interested in gold and silver in general. The holy objects are what's important. For example, some parchment books or other things, I want to bring them all.
Walk."
Paul heard everything. He especially heard that this young barbarian leader was pursuing the "Parchment Book", which was really shocking.
Paul thought carefully and said hurriedly and stumblingly: "There is a sacred book in the monastery, which is known to everyone in the kingdom."
"Oh? What book?"
"The Gospels of Lindisfarne"
"Is it a biblio?"
Paul was shocked when he heard this word, and he hurriedly shouted: "Even though I am of low status, I know that it is indeed a treasured biblio. I heard that it is written in Latin and is a sacred object of the kingdom."
"That is my sacred object! It will be kept by me from now on." Rurik was very ambitious. Compared with ordinary gold and silver vessels, a "biblio" written in Latin, which is the original version of the Bible, actually has something special.
of great cultural value.
Rurik himself was not interested in the belief described in the scriptures, but it was necessary for the Russians to learn from its cultural and artistic qualities. Since it was written in classical Latin, it should be taken as their own, and because of its classical
Latin is still an important diplomatic language in southern Europe. The most important thing is that the Latin vocabulary in this book will greatly expand the vocabulary of the Rus people and become the cornerstone of the rise of the Rus principality's language.
Rurik happily ran towards the open gate with his cronies, and he was shocked to see that the siege vehicle had already rushed in.
On the other hand, more than 40 people gathered to rush towards the car, and Biyongni became the leader of this group.
The car was aimed at the tight wooden door, which was full of ax marks. All the corpses and debris in front of it were cleared away, leaving only a smooth stone road with only blood stains left.
"Brothers! Come on!"
Biyongni gave an order, and hundreds of Viking warriors roared one after another. The people controlling the ram seemed to gain endless power. They pushed the ram faster and faster, and when they were about to hit, everyone took off their hands.
The heavy charging force was so powerful that it did not really break open the thick and hard oak door, but cleanly knocked down the door frame. The wooden door collapsed with the door frame and some stones.
People in the monastery began to scream, and some people continued to kneel in despair, crossing their chests and waiting for death to come.
The Vikings who rushed in didn't talk nonsense. They saw any black monks killing them wantonly. Their minds were controlled by rage and greed, and they became crazy during the killing. No one even thought about capturing prisoners and taking them back as slaves.
For a time they were killing for the sake of killing, and the sacred monastery was soaked in blood.
Rurik wished that the "Lindisfarne Gospel" he found as soon as possible was held in the arms of the bishop himself. How could such a sacred object be defiled by the sea barbarians?
However, the bishop always exuded a solemn temperament despite being neatly dressed. He was targeted by Biyongni, and the two soldiers did not kill him, but controlled him.
The Gospel fell to the ground, and a sharp iron sword was pressed against the neck of the bishop who had closed his eyes and was waiting to be killed.
Biyongni punched him awake, and then asked in Norse, the dialect of Narvik Port: "Gold! Silver! Warehouse! Where are they?!"
The bishop did not want to cooperate at all, nor did he want to make any resistance.
A warrior built the golden box that contained the gospel and proudly presented it to Biyongni. The warrior knew very well that Biyongni had a huge reputation and if he pleases him, he will surely benefit from his becoming the leader in the future.
.
Biyongni was overjoyed when the gold box was found: "I don't know what kind of treasure this precious gold box is going to contain."
He winked, and his men directly pressed the bishop against the wall.
Biyongni kept asking questions, but the bishop himself couldn't understand Biyongni's shouting, and he just wanted to die quickly.
"You're so stubborn, I'll ask you again! Where is the most precious treasure?!"
The bishop's eyes occasionally glanced at the gospel book that fell on the ground. The holy book was trampled on by the barbarian warriors (actually it was because the dark room made it difficult to see the book).
Biyongni became angry and randomly ordered his men to inflict corporal punishment.
The bishop's hands and feet were cut off, and then he was tied with hemp rope and tied to the wooden pillar of the monastery.
Biyongni personally carried an ax and approached the poor man, "Tell me the most precious treasure, or I will chop off your kneecaps now."
Seeing that the other party was still gritting his teeth and not making any statement, Biyongni had no choice but to torture him corporally.
A middle-aged man was screaming in pain. Rurik, who had already entered the monastery, suddenly saw what his Biyoni brothers were doing.
The holy monastery became a hell. Paul, who was accompanying him, was almost in a coma. He was only glad that he was wearing a white cloak with blue stripes. It was said that with it, he could avoid being hacked. But in this situation, he felt
He is a great sinner, so he might as well be killed.
Rurik approached Biyoni and saw that this brother was doing meaningless and disgusting things. He couldn't help but became furious: "Give them a happy death without any torture."
"But this man refused to take out the sacred treasure! Brothers, we are here to find the treasure!"
Biyonyi gave Rurik a big reminder. Looking at this poor man who is about to die, with his wonderful Mediterranean hairstyle, his identity is already clear.
"The Lindisfarne Gospel! Where is it!"
"I want a biblio! Give it to me!"
Rurik repeated these two sentences loudly, and the bishop was finally shocked to open his eyes. The bishop's eyes stared directly at Paul, who had just picked up a book in the chaos.
This look in his eyes was like a curse to Paul: "You traitor, you will definitely go to hell." He was so shocked that the book he was holding dropped to the ground.
"Paul?" Rurik suddenly turned his head and saw something like a book at his feet. His hair trembled with shock on the spot.
Paul hurriedly picked up the book again. He himself could not read Latin, but he just felt that this strange dropped book had extremely exquisite patterns. He thought that there should be many books in the monastery. Although this one is not sacred enough, I think the owner will
New love.
He presented it to him, while at this moment the dying bishop was cursing heartbreakingly.
A person who is supposed to be a refined and easy-going person is now being insulted and insulting him. This person's unprecedented abuse fully illustrates one thing.
Rurik noticed the extremely gorgeous patterns painted on the cover, which was definitely a Celtic style! He could not have imagined that the most precious holy book in this monastery would be so simple except for the cover pattern. He opened the book and saw
Page after page of parchment is densely written with extremely neat artistic calligraphy. There are also some paintings in the book, but these pictures are really abstract.
Rurik noticed all the text that was obviously a title. Even if it was in a strange artistic style, he still recognized some key words.
That’s it! Unmistakable!
Rurik excitedly closed the book and hugged it to his chest, and then asked Paul to speak for him.
Paul stumbled in extreme nervousness and said: "My master, Rurik of Rus, will always keep this sacred book."
Hearing this, the bishop who fell into the final madness instantly became quiet. He stared at Rurik's face in disbelief, and really didn't know what to say.
Rurik also pretended to make a sign of the cross on his chest and bowed slightly, not wanting to talk to the tied up man again.
After all, it was Rurik himself who commanded the army to fight here. Besides, the Kingdom of Northumbria is really a great evil person, so what he said is superfluous.
Rurik turned to look at Biyongni and showed the tree in his arms: "That's enough. In fact, this biblo is the most important treasure."
However, Biyongni shook his head in confusion: "What is it? Brother, only gold, silver and precious stones are treasures!" Then he continued to ask the bishop where the gold was.
Rurik really couldn't stand it anymore, and spying on Biyonni's ignorance, he solemnly ordered Yevro: "That's enough, give the trapped man a quick death."
Yevro understood this and completed the final blow with his sword. The bishop died...
"What are you doing!" Biyongni stamped his feet angrily, "Brother, I haven't asked about the whereabouts of the warehouse yet."
"That's enough. Take a good look!" Rurik casually pointed at the people running around in the monastery. They had indeed obtained more or less gold and silver.
At this moment, the two brothers Geiger and Esbjorn, and even Floki, the younger brother who had been ignored by Biyoni, came out from a side door. Then five suitcases were brought out, and the bronze lock was opened with the axe.
, inside were shining silver coins, each with the face of Charlemagne printed on it.
"Brother! We are rich!" Geiger shouted excitedly.
Upon seeing this, Biyongni's anger disappeared instantly, and then he hugged the silver coins happily, scratching the coins in the suitcase and laughing while listening to the crisp sound.
Rurik couldn't help but laugh, as if looting gold and silver really had nothing to do with him. As the saying goes, only rogue pirates are obsessed with gold and silver. Really strong people know that books and the huge amounts of information they carry are the key to the rise of great powers.
He casually ordered Yevro and other close mercenaries: "Don't worry about gold, silver and jewelry. Find books for me. Search the entire monastery and don't let go of any books. If you find books, give them to me. I'll give you a big reward!"