A cavalry regiment rests on the outskirts of the village of Gstadov.
In recent days, this team has been busy clearing away an intruding Norman fleet. The cavalry troops were initially furious after receiving the news, and gradually evolved into the current anger and exhaustion.
Two cavalrymen rode back. They dismounted and hurriedly reported their findings to their superiors.
"Sir, we have investigated. Not to mention the Normans, even the villagers..."
"What happened to the villagers?"
"Dead! Many people died, and there were corpses everywhere. The attackers were so crazy that they didn't even spare the children."
"Damn it!" A big hand slapped his face hard.
Count Hunter of Bremen has returned to his own territory. The village of Gstadov is his fief, and all villagers are tax sources.
"Who killed them? Well, let me guess, the only people who could do such a thing were the Normans."
The scout looked quite confused and couldn't help asking: "Sir, what should we do?"
"Wait a minute, has the wheat been harvested?"
"not at all."
"Ah, this is the only thing that makes me happy among countless bad things. Tell the soldiers to follow me into the wheat field. I... want to go to the village and see for myself."
Before the poor villagers had time to harvest the golden autumn rye, they were killed by the raiding Vikings and their bodies were scattered everywhere. This was not a big village leader, and more than 200 people in the village fell to death in the village.
The attackers were none other than Ragnar's men.
They had been pursued by Earl Hunter. When the initial contact war began, they went straight upstream along the Weser River. They made some gains at Ningburg upstream, but they were unable to break through the local wooden fortress.
They tried to plunder the villages, but the reputation of the Normans spread prematurely, and the villages that heard the news evacuated with their belongings.
The poor village of Gstaddorf was a little far away from the Weser River, and the overall environment was relatively isolated. The news about the Norman invaders was not very clear, so when the butcher knife came, they were completely defeated without even a decent resistance.
The tragedy of destruction.
The poultry and livestock raised by the villagers were plundered, and some of the wheat was also harvested.
Ragnar's troops had no intention of staying for a long time. This man had been avoiding a head-on encounter with the Frankish cavalry. No matter how reckless he was, he was not stupid enough to have a group of infantrymen holding battle axes to confront the cavalry group. He
A batch of key seizures were made in this village. After spending the night guarding the corpses of the villagers, they continued to row away with the clan members. In the next battle, they tried to loot some oil and water from the big city of Bremen.
As for Ragna being forced to retreat after failing to search, and encountering the Ross fleet by chance, that is all a story for another day.
However, the Count of Bremen's cavalry regiment is by no means a weak force. Although there are nearly two hundred mounted infantry with poor riding skills, more than a hundred cavalry are veterans who follow him out of the city regularly to suppress bandits. His
This team made great achievements in the recent truce against Denmark, because this team greatly enhanced Prince Ludwig's cavalry strength.
Even though the brave and capable Frankish army has experienced three hundred years of degeneration, making it difficult for the infantry to hold back even the Danes, who were of the same bloodline as before, its cavalry is still the mainstay of the army. The headquarters and all the cavalry of the lords are put together,
The prince had collected enough for 1,300 cavalry, but he just stood majestically on the battlefield. King Horik of Denmark became frightened, and the result was naturally Denmark's defeat.
The war with Denmark has not yet ended, and bad news comes from home.
East Francia was already certain to win. When he learned that a group of Danish Norman pirates were attacking in a roundabout way, the prince ordered the Count of Bremen to immediately bring his elite troops back to put out the fire.
At the same time, he sent a horse with a letter to order the Earl of Flanders, who had just expelled the Normans, to defend his territory.
The Earl of Bremen finally encountered Ragnar, who was plundering for the second time this year. The cavalry troops quickly raided Ragnar's shore camp. As a result, all the people who came ashore returned to the ship.
An army is floating on the river, and a large army is riding defeated and shouting curses on the bank.
The two sides shot a small number of arrows at each other, but in the end they stared at each other.
The fleet moved down the river, and it was difficult for the cavalry to catch up with them. Moreover, Bremen was to the south of the river, and the cavalry was all to the north of the river.
What made the earl's mouth bleed was that the nearest ferry was still upstream, which meant that they had to pass through the ferry and turn back before they could continue to pursue the drifting enemies, which was doomed to waste some time. There was no way, even horses couldn't move quickly for a long time.
, each cavalry only has one horse. They must conserve their horse power and need food supplies from nearby villages.
In the village of Gstadov, facing the stinking corpses all over the ground, the furious count ordered the soldiers to bury all the corpses.
The soldiers dug the pit, dragged and carried the corpses with horrific wounds, and then sealed the soil and erected a giant tomb.
The war horses gnawed crazily in the rye field, and even the riders took the time to harvest some of the rye and conduct shelling operations in a surprise attack. The rye was cooked and eaten as everyone's rations.
Although this supply was within the count's plan, the entire village had been abandoned and he could no longer collect taxes. He knew that he would face a worse situation. The territory was ravaged by the Normans twice a year, and the villagers fled everywhere.
He was panicking. If he missed next year's farming season, he would suffer a severe economic blow. Lower fiscal revenue would mean that it would be difficult to feed many soldiers. Once the armaments were weakened and the Normans came to raid again, how would there be enough soldiers to fight?
"Damn the Normans, I must annihilate you!"
He swore that although he realized that his cavalry could not outrun the Norman fleet floating along the river, even if it could catch up, the cavalry could not run wildly across the river and the sea.
Even if they cannot catch up, it would be a good idea for the army to withdraw to Bremen.
It was a solid city with walls made of stone and wood. With these, the Normans could not attack the city even if they had wings.
However……
It was another morning. The cavalry regiment advanced along the river and soon encountered another village named Akmusted. It was not attacked here, or in other words, it was attacked.
How could a small village gather as many as five hundred people? The wandering people were disgraced, and saw the cavalry pair holding the "Three Lions Flag", as if they were seeing angels, rushing towards them with cries and screams. It was obvious that they were coming.
The noble Earl cried even more thrillingly.
"What happened?" The earl immediately heard the news.
"My lord! They are the Normans! They..."
"What happened to them?! And you...are not villagers at all."
"Sir! Bremen has been attacked! The Normans broke into the city and killed everyone. We were lucky enough to escape by jumping over the wall..."
"Jump over the wall? The city wall is so tall, why didn't you fall to death?"
The speaker calmed down for a moment, and then replied with a frightened face: "The people who fell to death under the wall formed a slope. We can only be safe if we fall on the bodies of the dead."
As soon as he heard this explanation, the count's first impression was that he had a nightmare in broad daylight. After further questioning, everyone was telling the same thing.
Suddenly, the earl's heart tightened, and he fell off the horse, with one leg still hanging on the saddle. The horse was frightened, and it raised its leg and neighed, causing the earl to severely strain its thigh.
He was helped up by his subordinates, beat his chest hard and endured the pain in his legs, and continued to hear about the situation in Bremen from this group of refugees.
In this way, some extremely subtle situations further surprised him.
There was a special group of Normans who came on a large ship. They were neatly dressed and generally wore white robes. They flew a unified flag with a slanted blue cross printed on the white background...
"Ah? Could it be, Rose?"
Originally, there were no Norman invaders, and his daily life was peaceful and even a bit boring. Hunting and going out to suppress bandits were very important pleasures. Blue Fox's visit as an envoy from Ross once made the earl very interested. As for the concept of the Principality of Ross, he
He didn't understand. Considering that the other party was an envoy and was also hostile to Denmark, he even raised the possibility of forming an alliance with Bremen. His first understanding of the concept of Ross was not bad, but it was just because of his own background.
Due to the pride and religious concerns of the nobles, in principle, they cannot form an alliance with the Rus.
He felt that he was not telling the truth. The so-called military alliance was all conceivable, and commercial transactions were possible, as long as the Russians obediently reached some harsh conditions, thus showing that the Bremen aristocrats did not compete with foreign barbarians.
Naturally, he listed ten types of taxes casually, and finally determined that city entry taxes, customs duties, and business taxes must be collected. The choice lies in the hands of the Russians. He felt that heavy taxes should be used to deal with foreign barbarians instead of direct taxes.
Killing is already a great mercy.
"As expected, you Russians and Danes are exactly the same! Normans are Normans, hungry wolves who can't get enough to eat!"
Injured by an accidental fall from his horse, and suffering a severe psychological blow, the count had to stay in the village of Axmstead for two days. His cavalry regiment also needed rest and recuperation, and the local refugees needed comfort even more.
During the days of rest, the Count did not just lie down. He ordered his men to capture all the young people and adult men among the refugees. Regardless of whether they were willing or not, these people must take up arms and hang them directly if they dare to oppose them.
Three merchants lost all their goods and took their wallets with them. The soldiers were also jealous of the money. In addition, the merchants complained that the lord did not protect the interests of the merchants and paid heavy commercial taxes. They were hanged in public for the crime of rebellion.
As for the businessman's money being directly embezzled by the cavalry soldiers...
After killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, other men no longer complained, and even if they did, they didn't dare to say it openly.
Weapons were insufficient, so he used sharpened wooden poles instead, as well as the long-handled wooden forks used by villagers to fork grass on the spot. In the end, the people who could successfully jump over the city wall to escape were mainly young and middle-aged men. After they were forcibly recruited, the earl gathered together
formed an army of seven hundred men.
Bremen has been destroyed? The count still has one thought: his inner fortress is so well-defended that even if the barbarians enter the city and plunder, they can only sigh when facing the inner fort.
He wants to rescue his family and protect his internal funds, so that he can make a comeback.
A group of inferior infantry conscripts slowed down the entire team, and the depressed cavalry troops were unwilling to advance quickly. Fortunately, this village was not far from the city of Bremen, otherwise there would not be a large number of refugees fleeing in.
The group spent the night in the forest and lazed around until the morning, when some people began to notice the unusual weather in the direction of Bremen - thick smoke.
"Oh no!"
When he saw the smoke and dust with his own eyes, the count instantly thought of a hundred bad things. All the people who were sleeping lazily and soundly got up. The count no longer cared about the so-called infantrymen who were walking slowly away, and urgently ordered all the cavalry to get rid of the group of cranes.
,Attack towards Bremen!
They wanted to go back to put out the fire in a hurry, with the attitude of trying to save some if they could.
From the perspective of those infantrymen, how long would it take for them to escape? As soon as the cavalry figures were obscured by the forest, the infantrymen dispersed like birds and beasts.
Who is setting the fire? It is Ross and the Ragnar Alliance.
Originally, it was very dangerous for the coalition forces to stay in the city for a long time, but there were too many things to move.
Arik wanted to evacuate early, but he had no choice but to transport a large amount of wheat. Russian soldiers came to the battle and carried it for a whole day. The initial estimate of the large amount of rye was about 900,000 pounds. The Russian soldiers laughed and said that this plunder was huge.
One million pounds, all ten large ships in the fleet have to share some of the load, and the amount of cargo cannot be underestimated.
This is just the seizure of wheat. The Ross army and Ragnar's tribe really searched every residential area. Some people who were hiding were found out. Anyone found by Ragnar's troops would end up dead.
The women captured by the Russians were able to work as cooks. This is not because the Russians have retained the last trace of their humanity. In fact, when the army went to Britain, they also captured a small number of women to work as cooks. The brothers just did the same in Frank
, everyone still likes to eat hot meals directly when they are exhausted after searching for their belongings.
With the promise that they would survive by cooking wheat honestly, they all remained obedient. If he really wanted to kill these women, Arik couldn't do it, and the Saarema Islanders under Spuyut wanted to drag them to the island.
Live life.
A small group of prisoners was an unexpected gain. The Russian army was more concerned about the seizure of various metal tools. Of course, a batch of wooden utensils, such as wooden chairs and wooden barrels, were also taken away.
They did not find the wool warehouse, but they intercepted a large amount of wool, which was a joyful seizure.
The coalition forces searched the city for two full days. In the end, the Ross army, which occupied the count's residence, plundered the most wealth. For example, the count's treasury was looted. Although there were not many silver and gold coins in it, half of them was
It can replenish the national treasury, and the rest will be divided among the brothers.
It was dawn, and the coalition soldiers had already withdrawn to camp outside the city. Two days of searching and carrying made the brothers exhausted. All the work was worth it. Ragnar's people finally tasted the joy of the harvest, because
Once the prince of Rus allows him to stay as a guest, the wealth on hand will be enough to help the tribe make a comeback.
More than 200 men had a good rest. They got up and gathered under the blue sky, and soon a dense light appeared.
Aric and Ragnar stood in front of them and jointly lectured, saying that everything that could be snatched had been taken away, and what could not be moved should not be left to the Franks.
It is said that all this is part of the war. The Frankish Kingdom is the source of all evil, destroying the Rus' industry in Denmark, destroying the free trade port of Hedeby, destroying the home of the Stonewall tribe and killing many people.
The so-called Frankish Kingdom must get its due revenge. The Bremen army is a participant in the war. Burning this city is the most perfect revenge.
The emotions of the coalition soldiers are high, and they need the most explosive catharsis, such as creating a purgatory in flames.
"Fire! Follow me!" Arik shouted, calling for his men to rush into the city.
When Ragnar saw this, he also called on his subordinates to attack with torches.
Most of the houses in Bremen are single-story and have thatched roofs. Pure wooden structures are more likely to burn.
If there is any building that is the most perfect torch, it is the purely wooden St. Peter's Basilica.
At first there were just small flames everywhere, but with the help of the weak north wind, the fire gradually became crazy. When the sun rose, many places had turned into huge fires, with orange-red flames facing the golden rising sun, and gray-black flames.
The smoke and dust skyrocketed upward, quickly forming a smoke column as high as 200 meters, and became larger and more terrifying when blown by the wind.
Bremen's wooden cathedral was eventually destroyed in a fire, and the rebuilt church was made of pure stone. But in this time and space, the arsonist became a Norman.
The whole city turned into a big oven, and all the arsonists evacuated, fearing that they would be too late and become a barbecue.
The coalition forces boarded the ships, and the fleet floated calmly along the Weser River. Only the "volcano" behind them continued to spew out fire and smoke.
It was Arik who suggested setting fire to the city. After all, the first battle of his career was to kill all his enemies and burn down the town. Ragnar felt that this was a clever plan, and the raging fire met his needs for revenge.
The two sides hit it off immediately and created history.
Viking raids on Frankish villages and towns have long been recorded, and the Great Fire of Bremen in 836 must be a highlight. A large northern Frankish city fell into flames, and nearly ten thousand people died in this Viking raid.