Charlemagne's three lions flag flies on the top of the mound where the Aleb Fortress is located.
The castle built around the mound crowded into nearly ten thousand soldiers and civilians. Most of these people were Saxons who had lived in Jutland for nearly half a century. They supported Liudov, the legitimate descendant of Vidukind, and were very happy that they finally had a king.
, they all moved to the emerging Aleb Fortress and settled down.
Who would have thought that just after the first winter, when oat seedlings were growing well in the newly opened farmland, the war would break out.
People thanked God, thanked Liudov for his wisdom, and thanked the strong circular stone wall for protecting everyone.
But having a large number of old, weak, women and children crowded into the city is not a good thing after all.
What Liudov needs is a large number of young men in their prime. Although it is too far-fetched for those twelve or thirteen-year-old boys to serve as soldiers, it is best if there are a large number of twenty-year-old men here for him to recruit.
Since the people were passively gathered in a small fortress, in a situation where everyone was in danger, a large number of knowledgeable people were willing to stand up and take up arms for the lives of themselves and their families.
The people who were once extremely frightened saw Lord Liudov personally leading the cavalry to carry out punitive killings against the barbarian landing personnel. The cavalry returned with a great victory with almost no losses.
Liudov was covered in the blood of his enemies, and his men were bathed in blood.
The massacre of the cavalry was clearly seen by the people. People cheered and their thoughts of fear disappeared, because they saw that the Liudov they supported was indeed a descendant of Vidukind.
Optimism spread throughout the Aleb Castle, and the people trapped inside completely ignored all potential crises.
For example, there was no water source, and the food in the fortress was seriously insufficient.
There is nothing wrong in Europe with building fortresses around the tops of hills.
Because a fortress can provide daily living for at most several hundred people, and most of the supplies come from the bottom of the mountain. Relying on manpower to carry and drag supplies on shoulders can fully cope with the long-term daily life of a person of this size.
However, nearly ten thousand people suddenly poured in here...
After all, Liudov was a genuine Count of Westphalia. He had experience in governing a region and knew very well that the people in the territory supplied supplies to the nobles, and the nobles also had the obligation to protect the right to life of these people.
Protecting the people with a fortress is the moral practice of practicing one's beliefs.
But there were too many people! A large number of people took refuge at the same time, and the lords had to provide these people with food and water. This was "the obligation given by God to the nobles."
The reality is very cruel. Liudov gave the people food and water according to the rules of the nobility. Just one collective dinner emptied nearly one-third of his material reserves, and this was based on how much the people brought with them when they fled.
Under some soft conditions.
A rainfall can greatly alleviate the people's drinking water problem, but the stored food will be used up quickly. If the situation cannot be opened in three or four days, the Aleb Fortress may begin to turn into a hunger purgatory.
Asking some old, young, women and children to leave the fort and escape under the cover of night?
Liudov did not speak, and the northern sage Eskil had no such "inhumane" thoughts at all.
From an absolute rational point of view, these old and weak people are a burden in the defensive war. In addition to consuming the food and water of the defenders, they also force the defenders to allocate manpower to protect them.
Ordering them to leave during the chaos is beneficial to defense, but it is a ruthless trampling on faith.
Because Moses never abandoned his people.
What the world saw was that they had made great military exploits, just like Liudov who was resurrected by Vidukind.
The world cannot see the tremendous pressure Liudov himself faced.
The strength of the Normans (referring to the partial division of the Russian army and the Ragnar Danish army) used to be huge. To deal with this kind of army, I am afraid that my master, Prince Ludwig, would need to personally lead the main crusade.
With only 500 cavalry on hand, he could only adopt mad bull-like tactics and do his best to cause massacres, hoping to drive all the Normans away and wait for the theoretical reinforcements from Horik's north.
Oh! Poor Liudov! He didn't know that Horik had been beaten severely and was running away towards the Aleb Fortress with his tail between his legs.
…
Overnight, there were more than 2,000 armed men in Aleb Fortress, and many of them deliberately picked up sharpened sticks to defend themselves.
When the cavalry rushed out of the fortress, the winch quickly pulled up the suspension bridge, and the upper and lower opening and closing hardwood doors of the main entrance also fell heavily.
This move was definitely not Liudov's intention to fight against the odds, he was doing it to ensure that there were no loopholes in the fortress.
After all, the enemy only has a large number of troops at a glance, and the cavalry is killing everyone in one place. If an enemy division secretly succeeds in storming the fortress, everything will be over.
Now, the cavalry is thinking about the attack on the camp of Ragnar's seaside warriors. The huge formation cannot allow everyone to slack off. They were supposed to be carrying the bodies of the dead last night in the early morning, but now they have to form a shield wall and confront the cavalry head-on.
Liudolf was actually happy to see the Normans organizing a shield wall.
"They are already on guard! Soldiers, organize your lances and prepare for wheel battles!"
In wheel battles, the cavalry were divided into various fighting squads, taking turns to challenge the shield wall, and stabbing at the right opportunity with their extra-long spears. Regardless of whether they hit the target or not, they pulled out the spears and immediately retreated.
In principle, this classic Frankish tactic is not fundamentally different from the steppe cavalry's face-to-face mounted shooting.
The attack of the Frankish cavalry was about to begin. Ragnar and his men lined up in a short time, gritting their teeth and preparing to resist the attack. Some bow holders also began to throw arrows in the direction of the attacking cavalry. Unfortunately, this was a deterrent.
The nervous Ragnar's troops completely ignored a powerful force that completely escaped from the Russian camp.
A guard cavalry whipped his horse hard at the critical moment. He rushed to Liudov and shouted: "Sir, look at our rear! Those are not our cavalry."
"What?"
Liu Duofu turned his head subconsciously and saw a scene that he had never dreamed of.
"Am I dazzled? Whose cavalry is that? Is it from our Saxons?"
He took a closer look and saw that someone on the cavalry behind was carrying a flag. The flag was on a white background, with blue stripes extending diagonally to form an x coat of arms.
Those are Russians! They are actually Russian cavalry!
"Damn it. Eskil was right. The Rus among the Normans have cavalry. Damn it, where did these cavalry come from?!"
He couldn't imagine the serious situation, and he didn't even have time to think about it.
Because of the Ross cavalry who were pursuing like crazy, everyone had their legs tightened on the horse's belly, and their soles were firmly in the saddle.
Fisk shouted an order: "Throw! Harassment!"
Amidst the noise, he ordered his subordinates to do things in the simplest terms.
I saw the Ross cavalry wearing uniform white robes and blue stripes, holding a recurve bow in the left hand and pointing it up to the sky. The right hand immediately pulled out the quiver on the horse's back, pulled out the armor-piercing arrow and fired quickly with the right hand.
Nowadays, precision is no longer required, and the Ross cavalry, which is inferior in strength, now looks like a steppe light cavalry.
The big saw-sawing recurve bow quickly throws light arrows. The extreme tactics trained in the training ground are now being tested in actual combat.
The Ross cavalry drew their bows and shot arrows as fast as they could, and those who did well could shoot an arrow every two seconds.
The ultra-fast rate of fire completely made up for the lack of troops, and dense arrows hit the heads of the Frank cavalry group.
These armor-piercing arrows fly over great distances and fall almost entirely with gravitational potential energy.
The arrows no longer had strong kinetic energy and hit the Frank cavalry head and face like hail.
Deep dents were made in the leather helmets, and those soldiers who did not use cloth linings were immediately hit so hard that their heads buzzed.
An arrow just happened to get into the gap in the iron ring on the shoulder, causing the cavalryman a not serious but painful trauma.
There are also unlucky people who are fine, but their horses lack defense and are hit by an arrow. This is a disaster for the fast-moving horses.
Liudov could not ignore the presence of the Ross cavalry at all. His men were suffering casualties. Such a scene reminded him of the legend that when Charlemagne was conquering the Avars, he was attacked by a large number of enemy horse archers.
That was just a legend a long time ago. Liu Doufu didn't know about it, and now he can only face this dilemma personally.
One of the men fell off his horse and his life or death was unknown, and some horses clearly broke their legs after falling.
"Stop the assault! Change direction! Fight the enemy cavalry!"
Liudov's troops were well trained, and all the cavalry made a short counter-clockwise turn as a whole.
Their rapid change of formation also surprised the Ross cavalry who were constantly pursuing them.
In this regard, Fisk had already finished the meeting with his brothers before the war. He held up his recurve bow and said, "We succeeded! Everything went according to plan!"
Therefore, the Ross cavalry responded with a change of formation.
There are now 290 Ross cavalry participating in the battle. After the injured and injured horses were absent, the remaining ones were divided into three centuries and subdivided into twenty-nine ten-man squads.
Since they had to fight in the Pecheneg way, some of the lower-level officers in the team were originally Pechenegs, and a great drama between the prairie cavalry and the Western European cavalry was staged.
At the beginning, from the perspective of Liudov's Frankish cavalry, these enemies were about to engage in a cavalry charge against him.
Hedging? Isn’t that asking for death?
The lances moved forward one after another. Liudov said nothing, his eyes were full of murderous intent, and his lance pointed in the direction of the cavalry charge.
The Frank cavalry adopted new tactics. They quickly built a wide wall and pressured the Ross cavalry.
On the other hand, the Ross Cavalry, consisting of twenty-nine squads of three centurions, spontaneously divided into two groups and quickly circled to the two wings with the mobility advantage of the light cavalry.
The cavalrymen flew by like a wind board and fired two rounds of arrows rapidly. When they circled the wall one after another, they did not forget to fire two more rounds of arrows.
In this first round only, the two wings of Liudov's cavalry suffered special casualties.
Some warriors were hit by several arrows and accidentally fell off their horses due to pain.
Some unlucky guys were hit in the face and died on the spot with armor-piercing arrows piercing their skulls.
There were more than a dozen warriors who stumbled and endured the many arrow shafts stuck in their mail armor. They pulled out their swords and raised them high, eager to fight. However, their horses were already covered with arrows and were lying on their sides on the beach near the shore.
He tried to raise his head and vomited blood...
"It works! I just want to bully them into not using bows and arrows." Fisk was overjoyed and hurriedly ordered his subordinates to maintain their current positions and continue shooting arrows.
If the Frank cavalry did not attack, the Ross cavalry would maintain a safe distance and keep shooting arrows.
There are quivers on both sides of the saddle, and fifty swords are stuffed into each bag. They are very heavy burdens, so the horses are not too tired. The Ross cavalry is fighting without armor today.
One advantage of continuing to shoot arrows is that the weight of the war horse is constantly reduced.
Liudov had never seen such cavalry tactics in his life. He saw that his subordinates took off the round shields on their backs and protected themselves on their horses.
It's okay to be passive like this, the enemy's arrows seem to be unlimited.
Looking at the current situation, the Norman army has begun to take advantage of the opportunity to advance!
Also, what’s going on in the west?! A forest is moving?!
At that moment, an arrow accidentally penetrated Liudolf's round shield. He took a closer look, and to be fair, it was really a beautiful armor-piercing arrow cluster, like a needle.
He also suddenly realized that this needle could penetrate the chain mail ring without mercy and penetrate deeply into the flesh.
"No! I fell into a trap."
Escape? No! You can't just escape.
The furious Liu Doufu issued an urgent order: "We can't sit still and wait for death! Continue to rush with me!"
Vidukind's soul suddenly possessed him. In his rage, Liudovlin threw away his spear. He pulled out a battle ax and said, "Let them see the power of the axe!"
Therefore, faced with this situation, it is better to restore the glorious tradition of Frank cavalry-axe throwing.
The Farak cavalry resumed their charge, and they could not be seen raising their lances, which made Fisk think it was a scam.
Fisk didn't think much about it, and his subordinates still used the old tactics to deliberately maintain a distance and engage in mounted shooting combat.
Just as the two cavalrymen approached, a bunch of axes were thrown at the Ross cavalry.
And the Ross cavalry was not in vain. Some high-level warriors simply stood in stirrups, holding three arrows in their right hands, and fired "three consecutive shots in the face" at the very close Frank cavalry.
The armor-piercing arrow penetrated the body of the horse and the chainmail of the warrior.
The thrown double-edged ax swirled and hit the unarmored war horse, causing severe skin and flesh wounds.
The new round of confrontation between the two sides resulted in losses, and the Ross cavalry also encountered unexpected casualties for the first time.
Fiske, who had beaten many battalion commanders, never thought that the cavalry would suffer casualties, nor did he expect that one of his own would be painfully hit by an axe.
It was Frank's ax that hit the Ross cavalry soberly, followed by rage and clever response.
The Pechenegs in the team are asking everyone to strictly keep a distance, because the distance of manpower to throw axes is very limited, and the reserve of axes must not be much. As long as the Ross cavalry keeps a distance and deceives the enemy into throwing all the axes, the next step will be their own.
Killing.
Therefore, the Frank cavalry, who had been hurt by cavalry shooting, finally found a way. They began to throw axes wildly, while resisting the enemy's always sharp arrows.
Round after round.
However, the battle situation continued to deteriorate. The Frankish army suffered almost no losses in the following ten rounds of battles, and the Russian army also suffered no losses.
The Russian army clung to Liudov's Frankish army like plaster. When the latter found that their throwable hand axes had been thrown away, they suddenly realized that all this was the enemy's conspiracy.
"Haha! Their axes are gone!" Fisk noticed the enemy's plight and stood in the stirrups and shouted to all his men: "Continue! Impact! Shoot through their faces!"
The right quiver was empty, so many people carried the left quiver to the right. This collective behavior of changing quivers, to Liudov, who realized that something was wrong, was simply a signal for a decisive battle.
Suddenly, the Ross cavalry launched an attack. Faced with this scene, the Frank cavalry had no strength to organize a shield wall. There were soldiers in armor and chainmail. The horses were so tired that they were panting. Liudov hoped to withdraw from the battlefield quickly but was unable to do so.
.
The Turkic horses with stronger endurance showed a strong tactical advantage. The Russian cavalry noticed that the enemy did not even have the energy to form a formation, and their confidence suddenly increased.
Arrows kept hitting their bodies, and the Frankish cavalrymen and horses kept falling down.
A large number of soldiers dragged their wounded bodies and fled towards the Aleb Fortress, closely following their count Liudov.
The Frank cavalry, which had high hopes, was finally bled out under the attack of almost unlimited arrows. If they did not leave the battlefield, everyone would die!
This was a painful but not long escape. Compared to the enemy's embarrassing situation, the Ross cavalry was also tired.
Continuously pulling the bow and shooting arrows, the soldiers endured the soreness in their right arms and pursued. Facing the last quiver that was gradually emptying, could they still let the horses grow wings and fly over the stone wall if they continued to pursue?!
In order to escape quickly, Liudov desperately threw away some debris. He untied a key rope, so that the armor protecting Brother Ma fell off. Other soldiers followed suit, making this Frank cavalry mainly composed of Saxons
Literally means to be beaten to pieces.
The grand scene of the battlefield was clearly seen by the people watching the battle on the stone wall of the fortress. They saw Lord Liudov's tragic defeat and the final escape of the cavalry.
The soldiers in the fortress hurriedly opened the drawbridge, and the warriors holding bows climbed to the top of the city and shot arrows at the pursuing Ross cavalry. The arrows could not hit the enemy at all and could only serve as a deterrent.
The arrow feathers made of big white goose feathers were too conspicuous, and Fisk clearly noticed the enemy's countermeasures.
Lose no time to follow the enemy's greatness and rush across the drawbridge into the fort?
No! Let these cowards who fled the battlefield go back to the fortress!
Because at the rear of the Rus' army, a coalition of more than 5,000 New Denmark-Russian-Slavs had begun their siege.
After all, even if the battle was hasty, there was no way that Ragnar, Spyut and Medved would miss the opportunity given by the Ross Cavalry.
"Let's go!" Fisk turned the horse's head: "Kill the enemy's wounded soldiers and rescue our wounded soldiers!"
Then he muttered a few more words: "Rurik, please don't blame me for today's loss..."