Chapter 614 The King of Mercia, Wigraf, is furious
Wiglaf actually knew that there were pursuers behind him. The defeat of his Mercian army was not due to his own incompetence, but because the enemies in the big ships were too strong!
Are those the Vikings? They were allied with Northumbria!
A full-scale war seemed imminent, and he escaped with the remaining soldiers. However, he lost too many supplies and the morale of the soldiers was poor, and the escape was difficult.
When he was about to arrive at the Birmingham military camp, he sent messengers to several key lords to order them to organize troops and arrive in Birmingham immediately.
The king's decree that the messenger received was quite extreme, requiring that the lord who received the letter must deploy an unlimited number of troops regardless of any means.
Why?
Wiglaf's original words were straightforward and outrageous: "The kings of Northumbria betrayed their faith. They cooperated with the barbarians, which was equivalent to making a deal with the devil. They planned to kill all the Mercians."
There were not many horses, so the messenger galloped wildly.
The Shrewsbury nobles were the first to receive the king's request for help. Although the earl thought this was strange, he had never seen the king so anxious, so he began to organize troops.
The messenger continued to deliver the news to Worcester and Oxford...
Wiglaf could not count on the noble army that was too far away for the time being. His exhausted army finally arrived at the Birmingham barracks and finally received valuable supplies.
Only after arriving here and escaping all the way did Wiglaf have time to calm down.
He asked the soldiers who were left behind: "How is Tamworth now? How about Nottingham?"
However, due to the recent heavy rain, the few defenders were unwilling to go out to explore the road.
Wiglaf couldn't figure out the reason. Thinking that he had escaped quickly enough in the rain, he thought that his enemies were also facing the same predicament.
Before falling asleep, he ordered his men to arrest all men over the age of twelve from nearby villages, order them to serve in the army immediately and report to Birmingham with their own food.
However, the next day, when the exhausted and defeated army had just staggered to sleep in the king's camp for a night, and their energy had not yet been restored, an army hurried over in the mist.
The soldiers were on alert, but when they discovered that they were the Earl of Leicester's troops, alert became contact.
I heard that reinforcements have arrived, which is undoubtedly good news after the rain has passed and the weather has cleared!
Wiglaf happily received the Earl of Leicester and praised him enthusiastically: "It seems that you have received my order. You are indeed a loyal minister of the kingdom."
The Earl of Leicester had a downcast face, and even his beard looked desolate.
The earl could not conceal his grief and indignation, and then cried loudly: "Your Majesty! Tamworth, has..."
"What did you say?"
"Tamworth has been surrounded by an army! The capital is in danger! Many people are fleeing."
"Are you...are you joking?" Wiglaf's face turned pale in an instant, and he suppressed a giggle for a long time.
"It's true, I swear to God. My troops are powerless to defeat them, and I'm looking for yours too. Your Majesty, it's a good thing you're not here at Tamworth."
"Okay? My prince! My canary!" Wiglaf stamped his feet angrily, and he almost fainted.
But reason still prevailed. He didn't believe that the Northumbrians were moving so fast. Wait, what if they were Vikings?
It shouldn’t be! The Vikings shouldn’t be so fast.
Wiglaf believed that there were enemies standing under the city wall. Tamworth should be said to have encountered trouble, and the matter should not be fatal.
He asked casually: "How many soldiers did you bring?"
"Three hundred people."
"Why so little? It's not enough at all."
"Your Majesty, my strength is very weak."
Wiglaf shook his head, he felt that Earl Leicester was pretending to be weak.
"It doesn't matter. Three hundred people are not too few. I will wait for two more days until the Earl of Shrewsbury arrives with his troops. Then we can join forces and go to Tamworth together."
Wiglaf is still quite optimistic so far. He trusts his prince Botwulf to guard the city, and he is eager to let Mary, the little slave who plays the role of his daughter, kneel beside him in single clothes and sing a song.
The so-called Queen Mary is indeed not Wiglaf's daughter, but is actually the product of the queen's adultery. Wiglaf and the queen are a purely political marriage, and the two of them have completed their mission by giving birth to Botwulf. As for his success in becoming king in the future
, in order to avoid the scandal, he forgave his wife who became the queen, but the anger was difficult to heal, and this anger was vented on poor Mary. Not to mention, she grew into a beautiful maid, an interesting
Canary.
Poor Mary, if Wiglaf also dies, the true secret of identity will be lost to history forever with the death of all those who know about it.
Birmingham Barracks is not far from Tamworth. The barracks are on the left bank of the River Tamworth, and the capital is on the right bank.
Some scouts went straight to Tamworth, and they saw a shocking scene from a distance. They traveled all night with extremely bad intelligence, and informed the king when they were about to arrive. King Wiglaf drew his sword as if he was so angry.
"Are you lying to me? Damn crows, I'm going to kill you!"
The scout knelt down and cried, covering his heart and swearing to God that he was not lying.
"Perhaps what they said is true." The Earl of Leicester was also trembling when he spoke. "I took in the refugees and saw the barbarians attacking the city."
"What else did you see?" Wiglaf asked the scouts after calming down his anger.
"I saw a lot of enemies, a lot of big ships."
Another scout said: "I saw the flags on those big ships, and they looked exactly like our flags. Those enemies clearly attacked us in Dole Village..."
"Are they Vikings? Damn it!" Wiglaf was furious with deep fear. He never dreamed that a large number of barbarian flags could be flying on the walls of his capital city. This was a shameful thing for the queen to commit adultery.
.
The war with Northumbria is no longer the main conflict. The worst-case scenario is actually like this. If your capital is attacked, won't your wealth and royal power be shaken?
No! Prince! Has he died in battle?
Wiglaf was eager to lead his troops to recapture Tamworth, because this humiliation was worse than surrendering to Wessex.
At this lowest point in life, an army appeared like an angel descending!
It was the Earl of Shrewsbury and his army of more than 600 people! They were veterans who guarded the west of the kingdom and had fought against the Old Britons in Wales for many years.
Indeed, the Earl of Shrewsbury's soldiers are well-equipped. Many Mercians say they are well-trained, and their strength is only inferior to Wiglaf's elite soldiers. Naturally, there is also a saying that the so-called Earl of Shrewsbury's family can also fight for some reason.
When the time comes, compete for the throne of Mercia.
However, when the count learned of the disaster in the capital, most of his pride had dissipated.
Wiglaf could no longer care too much. He used strong tactics and recruited more than 500 people from several nearby villages.
All the reinforcements, headquarters troops, camp defenders, and farmers were added together, and an army with a strength of nearly 4,000 people was born!
So many men gathered together and the spears were like a dense forest.
Although many of the spearheads were rusty, there were also some sharpened wooden poles and pitchforks, as well as flails and scythes used for threshing millet.
There are all kinds of weapons, and such a force has rebuilt Wiglaf's confidence.
He stood on a high ground in the military camp, suppressing his anger and giving orders to the gathered crowd.
"The Northumbrians betrayed their faith! They made a pact with the devil who came across the sea!"
"The hateful enemy attacked our army secretly and is now attacking our Tamworth!"
"Mercians! I command you to take up arms! This is not a fight for me! You, the most ordinary peasants, are now the sergeants of the kingdom. You must fight for your wives and children, for wealth and glory."
"Don't think that these wars have nothing to do with you! The Northumbrian troops who signed a contract with the devil are already monsters! They will eat everything that moves, make the grass and trees wither, and turn the cattle and sheep into skeletons.
They will also take away your souls. If we don’t defeat them, we will all fall into hell!”
Wiglaf talked a lot, and his words also contained many curses and threats.
The assembled army was greatly frightened, and their morale was strangely increased by fear.
The territory of Mercia is naturally larger than that of Northumbria, and the population is also larger than the former. If Wiglaf is given enough time, he can indeed bring out 10,000 warriors, which in this era is almost equivalent to an "astronomical number" of troops.
army to fight any attacker.
What he is doing now is almost gambling with his royal power.
Yes, what else can be lost? If a king who has lost Tamworth declares to abandon it, it is tantamount to automatically abdicating the throne. Unless he leads his army to fight hard and saves Tamworth, the king's power can continue to be stable.
Because Wiglaf was a military noble before he became king, his early years of being forced to surrender to the King of Wessex had already ruined his reputation. The successful restoration did not restore his past destiny, and now he knew that he had to fight hard.
Wiglaf's patchwork army began to advance towards Tamworth.
At the same time, the Rus, Balmoks and Northumbrian troops were actively dividing the spoils of Tamworth.
Rurik estimated that he had plundered one million pounds of wheat in Tamworth alone, plus the oats he had plundered in York, so there was no problem in plundering 1.5 million pounds of grain.
Even so, he threw a batch of grain to the Balmoks who were about to launch a large-scale immigration.
Grain of this scale is roughly equivalent to 580 tons.
This can be called an extreme number, but Rurik is completely justified.
The Avora-class sailing cruiser is more than enough to carry one hundred tons of cargo!
The Duke of Ostara and the Sperosvilia directly shipped one-third of all captured wheat!
With so much cargo stuffed into their smooth and thick hulls, the sleeping depth in the Tam River dropped by nearly one meter.
Fortunately, this river is not a stream. Its channel can easily drown people, and it can actually float a fully loaded ship.
Rurik's fleet, which has the largest number of armed cargo ships, is very normal for one ship to transport thirty tons of wheat. These cargo ships alone are enough to carry the wheat back home.
The Balmoks were busy selecting slaves from the captives, and King Aynred of Northumbria was eager to control the refugees. Rurik's plundering of the population really didn't look like a Viking, but Queen Mary and the
One hundred and twenty women must be taken away. This includes the captured old priest of Lindsay Abbey, who must be escorted to Ross.
In fact, Rurik could already take his men and run away with the loot, because it was already September.
However, he couldn't just go back to his hometown to spend the winter. Due to practical reasons, he had to wait for the Balmoks and then evacuate together.
Because some supplies belonging to Ross are still thrown in the Narvik Fjord in the far north, especially a large amount of good salt, which needs to be taken away.
After all, it was September, and Rurik knew he didn't have much time left. Thousands of Balmoks could spend the winter in Britain, but he couldn't.
In the tent, he discussed with his cousin Arik and decided to split into two groups when he returned home.
"Asking me to be the leader of escorting supplies? Isn't this... the Sorgon voyage?" Arik was a little surprised.
"I really have no choice. Our army's war in Britain has come to an end. The people back home need a lot of wheat, and our grain transport fleet must arrive before the sea freezes."
"That's the truth. But you have to go to the Balmok people's hometown again? You will have to sail for at least twenty days more!" Arik said that it was inappropriate.
"This is to announce to them that we Russians are reliable allies. Besides, I have to bring back that salt, and I can buy more salt. Brother, we must seize the opportunity."
"Why?"
"I'm afraid that after the Balmoks started farming, they would no longer be interested in making salt. We must seize the opportunity to reserve more salt."
Arik kept scratching his head. To be honest, he was eager to go home. Since his brother was so determined, he had no complaints.
Arik never worried about any of Rurik's voyages. A brave man is not afraid of the sea, and his brother also received God's blessing. The storm on the sea could not capsize Rurik's ship, but would only help it sail wildly.
The agreement was to wait for three more days, but in fact on the second day, seeing that the world was already safe, the Russians went all out to load the wheat onto the ship, and were using levers to quickly transport the wheat grains into sacks in rope net bags.
This night, the Russian soldiers and the mercenaries gathered around the campfire again. After eating rice, they fell asleep to recuperate from the work of transporting supplies.
As for the captured women who learned their fate, they could only keep sobbing, and some cheered up, thinking that the days ahead in a new place shouldn't be too bad.
Only the brain-damaged princess Mary felt a strange sense of joy when she saw her brother's body with half of his head cut off and his head turned into a victor's bowl.
She took the initiative to have an extremely intimate relationship with Rurik, trying her best to please the boy and herself.
She wished that she would get pregnant and give birth to a child as soon as possible, so that her descendants could continue to hold the title of Mercian nobles and open up new territories in the future. Because, although she was down and out, Rurik of Rus and his powerful principality continued to
Support your noble status.
Because this is Queen Mary's revenge.
She was taking revenge on her father. She used this method to overthrow the rule of King Wiglaf and his male heir, and then replaced her with Rurik's son. This was the ultimate revenge.
What a sad princess. She still doesn’t know her identity. It is precisely the members of the royal family who kept silent about the scandal, and the rest of the insiders were physically wiped out into ashes. Mary had no idea that the humiliation she had suffered was indeed harmful.
There is an original sin.
Living in the moment, she really felt that Rurik was really a holy boy. He exuded the fragrance of flowers (with special soap), had no dirt on his body, and had golden hair and a handsome face. What woman
Not tempted?
Rather than bluntly saying that he, as a noble, was really unclean, Rurik not only did not complain, he behaved like a bull in April. Having sex with him made Princess Mary feel like a woman for the first time, rather than a sinful animal.
canary.
It is rare that she has self-knowledge. She knows that it is not her skin that attracts the attention of Rurik of Rus, but the fact that she is the top noble of Mercia and can speak Latin fluently. The most important thing is the latter. She
He also basically figured out what happened to him after he was "captured" to the Principality of Ross - becoming a Latin teacher.
But things have changed.
A very small encounter occurred this evening.
It was Balmok who wanted to hunt tusks for sacrifice. He took his bow and went to the forest on the other side of the river to try to hunt some hares. As a result, he encountered a scout from the Mercian army.
Although the Mercian scouts tried their best to escape, one of them was captured after falling down after being struck by an arrow.
Why did the strange soldiers appear here? The Balmoks, who thought there was something very strange among them, went through a lot of twists and turns before they took the prisoners back to the camp by the river near dawn the next day.
New captives appeared? The sudden situation made the knowledgeable people in the Viking coalition instinctively take precautions. Everyone was a veteran on the battlefield, and they all felt the impending murderous intent. The so-called captives easily confessed everything——
The army of Mercia is coming in mighty force!
At dawn, the world is still immersed in mist, the sun rises lazily, and the golden light illuminates the world like a sanctuary.
The Russians, Balmoks, mercenaries, and even the Northumbrian army, the mixed coalition had no time to linger now.
The Northumbrians blew their horns, and so did the Rus and Balmokh.
Because the captured scouts deliberately exaggerated the strength of the Mercian army, claiming that there were at least 10,000 troops.
Ten thousand soldiers? Rurik couldn't believe it subconsciously, but after Eynred's description, he believed it a little bit.
"Since the enemy has so many troops, are you afraid?" Rurik asked the broken-arm Eynred with a deliberately contemptuous attitude.
It is impossible to say that he is not afraid. As a king, Eynred still bites the bullet and says that he is not afraid.
It was precisely this answer that made Rurik and Magnut put their heads together and simply use their plan.
"Let the main force of your army cross the river and fight them decisively!" Rurik stated his position to Eynred on behalf of the Viking coalition. "After all, this is a war between Northumbria and Mercia. Whether we help or not depends on
Our mood.”
"But this is not in compliance with the treaty!" Eynred tried to argue.
"No! What we signed is just a non-aggression treaty. Don't worry, I won't sit back and watch your army be wiped out. Besides, Tamworth is their capital, and it is natural for the Mercians and you to fight hard. Unless you declare to give up.
Central Mercia including Tamworth, and the subsequent rule of the Pekset and Chester areas." Rurik said this, and Aynred could only bite the bullet and order his army to pass through the Vikings.
A temporary pontoon bridge built by the coalition forces.
Just as the various sergeants of the Northumbrian army were halfway across the river, a flag suddenly fluttered from the low mound in the distance.