Wooden strips were used to strengthen the wooden walls, and some temporary scaffolding was also started to be constructed. Old mercenaries with considerable combat experience piled stones and soil at the main entrance of the shop and mansion, and carts carrying goods were also pushed to the wall and the shafts were removed.
Stacking wooden boxes made a temporary standing position, enough for the warrior to lean out half of his body.
Blue Fox checked the weapons of his people. Although most of them were equipped with convenient melee weapons, there were also some crossbows with wooden arms, and there was also a bow of average quality. The arrows inherited the tradition of the Russians, and the carbon
The steel-tempered arrow cluster has very good penetrating power and is effective against any enemy.
Ross's shop has become a fortress, with circular wooden walls forming a turtle shell. The wood in their outdoor stalls has been cleared and turned into tools for reinforcement.
It would be too passive to become a turtle and just watch.
One quiet night, Blue Fox summoned all the soldiers in the house.
Although they were alone and deliberately trapped in a corner, the soldiers showed a fearless aura, as if they didn't care about their own death and just wanted to enjoy the fun of killing.
The ominous atmosphere in Hedeby City is now such that soldiers can detect it from a high place. No one dares to approach the fortress of Ross Shop. Occasionally, ignorant children will poke their heads out and see the soldiers waving their hands, but they don't care.
As the ground approached, the children were immediately taken away by their families, which undoubtedly revealed an obvious signal of crisis.
Putting the gorgeous clothes aside, Blue Fox also put on an iron helmet. His face was squeezed and distorted, but although the helmet was the largest, it could only barely fit Blue Fox's head.
This young man, who looks like a fat seal with a big belly, is very suitable for him to be a big businessman, but it would be too ridiculous for him to be a warrior.
Absurd as it is, businessmen should think about how to protect themselves under the obvious military pressure from the enemy.
Some veterans took the opportunity and said casually: "No one is afraid of the Danes. The new Danes are still our defeat. It's just that we have few people and few weapons in our hands. If we want to kill many enemies, we still have to fight with them."
They fought hard."
When talking about fighting, some veterans immediately retorted: "Confused! You want us to fight them head-on? We obviously have few people, so doing this is courting death."
"What's wrong? We are almost certain to die in battle. I want to look like the heads of a group of enemies from the front, instead of standing on a high place and firing cold arrows as planned."
"Do you think it is not honorable to shoot cold arrows? If the enemy is dead and you are alive, it will be honorable. No one cares whether you kill the enemy with an ax or a sword."
"False. A true warrior should chop off his enemy's head with an axe."
"Forget it, if you let the prince choose, he will definitely give us brothers a steel-armed crossbow, and let us line up to shoot arrows. The swords and axes will not be stained with blood, and we will get pieces of enemy corpses."
…
The old mercenaries themselves can start a quarrel. They each have their own reasons. Blue Fox is very happy with their momentum, but he is unhappy at this juncture. There are still people who want to pursue the so-called fair duel.
Blue Fox spoke: "We are not arguing now. I am the commander here, but I am not a soldier, and I don't understand some tactics. But I only know one principle. There is no need for brothers to fight to the last man.
I hope that you can continue to kill the enemy without killing anyone on our side. I hope that you will all give your opinions, guard our wooden wall, and try your best to think of ideas of killing the enemy through the wall."
The old mercenary who was eager to break through the wall and form a formation to kill the enemy stopped talking, and his followers also fell silent.
As for Blue Fox's proposal, everyone really can't think of any new tricks other than releasing cold arrows.
"All you think about is archery? No more creativity?"
Lan Hu was dissatisfied, and was unable to make irresponsible remarks.
That Wadi Zdalovich suggested: "How about we prepare some stones, which can also kill and injure the enemy."
"Stones...we still have some rocks here." Blue Fox was really speechless.
Vardy asked again: "If we make a batch of slings out of cloth ropes, the small stones will become useful."
"Sling? Are you good at throwing stones? That thing doesn't work at all. It's just a trick played by shepherds."
Wadi immediately became excited and said, "Sir, do you have any more options? We brothers (referring to the Slavs) all know this trick. If the enemy does not have armor, the stones we throw out will give them a taste of their power."
"Okay." Blue Fox shrugged, "At least it's a way. You..." He looked at the others again, "You should try to find some better ideas."
In fact, some people thought of heating hot water. Some old mercenaries saw what the local defenders did when the Swedish coalition forces besieged the Borgholm Fortress. What they poured down was hot oil, which later turned into hot water, but it didn't work.
The siege of the city gave a group of people an extremely painful and unbearable blow. However, there were many problems with this method. For example, they did not have much water, and they also lacked pottery jars and fuel wood.
Ross' shop could have had a torsion slingshot available, but Blue Fox required that the armed merchant ships returning home must be equipped just in case something unexpected happened when passing through the waters of Burgundy Island, so there was no one left.
Blue Fox had his own considerations. He didn't want to fight to the death from the beginning. He just wanted to kill a large group of enemies and then escape using a strange path.
No one had any objections to the issue of shooting cold arrows. As for Blue Fox's order, someone finally found a way to make the whole room laugh.
"Arrow clusters smear our excrement. The prince said that excrement is a kind of filth. There are some invisible bad things in it. When it comes into contact with bleeding skin and flesh, it will cause redness and swelling, and eventually people will die of fever. If there is no fever
Cleanse the wound with wine, it is certain to die."
Someone said that, and everyone was really happy.
After all, this is also a method. Since the prince said that this trick is effective and explained the principles behind it, brothers don't have to use it in vain.
This was a meeting to discuss more enemy-killing tactics, and the results of the research were nothing more than fancy archery and slings with unknown effects. They also developed some new tactics in tactics, such as making some ladders and placing them in rooms within the walls.
The roof of the house is assembled with wooden strips to form a platform for warriors holding crossbows to lie down and shoot arrows.
According to this plan, the Russians will consume arrows on a large scale. In fact, the arrows in Blue Fox's hands are not many. There are forty crossbows and walking bows in total, and the arrows can barely make up a thousand. Since the arrows are killing
With the enemy's main force, Blue Fox had no choice but to mobilize his men to do more.
How to make more arrows? In a difficult situation, soldiers will be good at using their ingenuity. At first, there were long arrows cut in two, thick iron nails in the wooden strips, bone fragments from leftover food, and even pottery fragments.
They have all been polished and trapped on wooden poles with ropes. It doesn't matter whether they have tail feathers or not. These can only be fired with a crossbow. If you can hit them at close range, you will win.
They haven't come to the point of inventing the split arrow on their own, but they have realized that one arrow can be used as a double weapon.
On the other hand, Wadi Zdalovich also led his hometown people to make their own slings, which were just hemp ropes tied to a cloth bag, and their power was unknown in terms of simplicity.
They still have a way to escape unscathed. Blue Fox is a businessman, and when doing business, he must pay attention to keeping a secret. Big businessmen are often gangsters, and the targets of powerful people. If the other party comes to rob them with force, the businessman and the wealthy must have an escape channel to escape.
.
An alleyway was excavated just under Ross's store. It was pitch dark inside, but the passageway was reinforced with wooden bars. It was not very narrow, and was built just enough to allow the fat man like Blue Fox to run in one direction, which was enough.
The alleyway leads to about 200 meters away. It is said that when the shop was first built, the old guy Gould told his second son Blue Fox that it was similar to the "cunning rabbit's three burrows". The alleyway and the shop were built at the same time, and a large number of excavated
The soil was conveniently placed next to the wooden wall, and the wall was reinforced.
Even if there is an escape route, many old mercenaries are like sharks that smell blood. You can say that they are ignorant, but they have their own opinions. They always feel that they are not ordinary mercenaries, but personal soldiers of the Son of God.
It allows the enemy to see his fleeing back.
The Russians have given up all illusions. They stay behind closed doors and hang the Russian flag with a white background and blue stripes high on the wall. There is more than one flag, which is a mockery of Stade.
Ever since a group of big businessmen and a group of gang leaders described the legend of Roseburg's mountains of gold and silver, Stade and his brothers were also actively preparing for war.
Are you going to attack a wooden fortress? Based on his experience in robbing wealthy locals in Flanders, Stade doesn't know anything about sieges.
The wealthy people in Flanders or some villages would build walls to create shelters.
In a substantial sense, Horik's group who invaded Flanders were among the first batch of "Norman Conquerors". However, as Horik led his troops back to Denmark, the territories they occupied in Flanders were destined to quickly expand.
After the decline, they did not achieve long-term conquest. These years of raging have greatly changed the lives of the locals in Flanders. They were afraid of being robbed by Durist's Norman bandits, and powerful people began to build defensive measures.
For example, building strong buildings, setting up defensive towers and digging ditches, storing enough food in the buildings to keep many people alive for a long time, and digging wells.
It was the ravages of the Vikings that led to the "Castle Age" in Western Europe. All capable villages and lords with financial resources would build defensive buildings of wood and stone to shelter the fleeing people when the Vikings invaded.
Changes first occurred in Flanders, where locals began to build wooden fortresses. While it became more difficult for the Normans to rob, they also began to practice engineering skills.
Stade knew only two tricks: piling logs on a cart to break through walls and making a car. He also made long ladders to allow soldiers to climb directly into the wall.
Another trick that is generally not easy to use is to throw a rope with a loop and catch some protrusions of the wooden wall. The brothers swarm up and pull the rope to forcefully collapse the wall.
The newly arrived Danes, all wearing armor, are actually chopping wood?
Karl, the gray wolf, who took participation in the war as a form of surrender, had already summoned five hundred people with coaxing and deception! A large group of ragged locals brought their own various weapons and formed a menacing army to attack the Stade soldiers.
The appearance of a large army really surprised Stud. The gray wolf Karl, with an iron helmet on his head, reported to his new master with great pride.
"Look, these are my people. Don't look at them. They are a little slovenly. They will be like hungry wolves and mad dogs, and they will even use their teeth to bite them in order to fight."
"Mad dog and hungry wolf? Why do I feel like they are a group of beggars?" Stud's words were very aggressive, and the gray wolf Karl was speechless for a moment.
"Forget it." Stade waved his hand: "I've seen it all. You have a lot of strength. I hope these guys who are attacking the signs are really not afraid of death in battle."
"Ah?! You know everything?"
"You're arresting people in the city and nearby Saxon villages. It's not like you're doing this kind of thing..."
Stade became interested. He walked into the group of farmers, small traders and even small craftsmen who had been forced to attack, and announced to them: "I am your future lord! You are fighting for me now. When you win,
You will all be rewarded."
Then some people started shouting and cheering, and then a group frenzy arose.
This was such an unparalleled momentum that even the Russians in the distant fortress noticed that it was the Viking war cry of the soldiers, and it also brought an abrupt end to the peaceful and boring days for many days. The war is finally coming?
Gray Wolf Karl did not hesitate to take credit: "I just said, these people are so powerful that they will definitely help you win. Then from now on..."
"Don't worry, we won't treat the meritorious people badly. You can leave with them."
"Yes. It's just..."
"What's wrong?"
"I have a question to ask."
"What's the matter?"
"I saw your warriors chopping wood and preparing a lot of hemp ropes. This..."
Stade didn't bother to explain, thinking that this leader was not so stupid that he couldn't even attack a city? Maybe that was the case.
"You don't need to ask any more questions. You will understand when I decide to go to war. Now I will give you a task."
"As you command!"
"I haven't said it yet!"
"Of course my brothers and I will obey your orders."
This guy's attitude was like that of a pug, and I'm afraid he was more hypocritical and submissive. It didn't matter whether he was just pretending or not, Stade directly ordered: "Then prepare more bows and collect arrows."
"As commanded."
Is it difficult to dismantle that fortress? The scouts sent by Stade were observing in secret. Those who came back claimed to have seen the Russians actively preparing for war, and even transformed the roofs into towers.
Stade was quite arrogant at first, but now that the scout reported this unusual information, he had to become serious.
The Russians are by no means confident in their field battles. They even think that they are good at building defenses? The dress of their soldiers is quite similar to that of the Frankish regular army. If their strength can be compared with the Frankish army, they really need to treat it carefully.
He began to respect his opponents, and the so-called best respect is to use his greatest strength to drive his opponents away.
What's more, August is not far away, and the wheat harvest will begin throughout Denmark. The Danish heroes who went out to rob will also go home to harvest wheat. When these people return, they will see that Denmark has changed, but these people are probably the most unruly people in Denmark.
To make these people surrender to the new king, Horik needs some victories.
Horik was preparing. He sent Stade to occupy Hedeby and declare his rule, and also gave him the qualification to annihilate the rebels. Horik was actually worried that his general would bring all his own troops with him.
It would be terrible if Hezebi took the stand and divided the country on his own.
Horik decided to lead his troops to Hedebe during the wheat harvest season and occupy the trading city founded by his grandfather to show all the Danish lords and pirate leaders what courage was.
In order to please his master, Stad encountered the disgusting thorn of the Ross merchants. If he didn't annihilate them, wouldn't he be disgusting King Horik in the end?
Those big businessmen lied that there was a mountain of gold and silver in Stad that could be robbed. They gave all the support except help. They didn't even cooperate with the so-called mercenaries. Instead, they guarded their wealth and watched the fight between tigers and tigers.
It is impossible for the gang leader and a group of loyal gangsters to go through fire and water themselves. The brothers also succumbed to the legend of wealth and waited to steal the money after victory.
Since then, a group of poor civilians have been gathered together, and almost all of them have been forcibly recruited. However, after learning that if they win the battle, they will have the right to rob the Russians of their mountains of silver coins, the civilian farmers are excited because they all know that the Russian merchants are real.
They have long been envious of the wealth of the Russian merchants, just because a weak robbery will inevitably lead to death. Now the new king of Denmark is behind it to provide legitimacy for the collective robbery. The so-called this is not robbery but for Denmark.
Fight for honor.
The leaders of various gangs were arresting people, but in the end, a team of thousands of people was gathered in Hedeby and nearby villages! A group of farmers were very much looking forward to plundering a fortune from the Ross merchants before the wheat harvest, so they owed
The landlord's rent can be flattened, or he can get enough money to buy new land, farm tools, or even find a wife.
It is true that they are farmers, but they are farmers in Denmark. They are completely different from Frankish farmers and British farmers. In fact, these people have transformed into shirtless Viking pirates. However, their weapons are too poor and their offensive weapons are not enough.
It was hand axes, short spears, harpoons and rusty iron swords. However, everyone prepared a round shield that was enough to protect most of the torso. Many people were actually shirtless, with strange braids, and even
The beard is also braided.
It is reasonable for Stade to say that these people are like beggars, because Horik's old subordinates have completely popularized the armor. Although it is made of cowhide and riveted iron sheets, this method is very similar to the Frankish regular infantry. It is Horik's new Denmark.
The soldiers can reflect dazzling light under the sun, and their momentum can't be compared to that of a group of shirtless soldiers?
At least they were outnumbered. The number of more than a thousand people was completely beyond his expectation. He thought that this attack would be easy to win. Stade even felt that it was redundant to make his own siege vehicles and ladders.