Chapter 931: The Great Chaos in the Outer City of Aleb Fortress
The hands holding the spears were trembling, and the armed civilians in the city stood behind the collapsed stone gate, nervously waiting for the final battle.
Liu Doufu, whose head was covered with blood, had no intention of retreating. In his extreme excitement, he no longer felt the pain of the wound, nor did he feel the approach of death.
His mind went blank, he just wanted to stand here and lead the army to fight to the end with the Norman army.
"Better prepare! They're coming!"
The first batch of shield-wielding soldiers of the New Kingdom of Denmark climbed up the slope covered with rubble and broken trees howling. They had no time to pay attention to the desperate wails of their buried companions, because they wanted to break into the city and achieve their first victory.
These Danish warriors from Zealand stood on a high place and saw the enemies in the fortress arrayed, and they couldn't help but feel nervous.
Rushing forward so recklessly will inevitably lead to a chaotic battle. The faster you rush, the more likely you are to die.
However, behind them were thousands of soldiers eager to enter the city. The narrow suspension bridge was crowded with people, and more soldiers simply jumped into the ditch full of corpses, climbed to the opposite side and followed the path under the wall towards the collapsed stone gate.
surge away.
The people behind were urging and pushing with their shields, and the vanguard had no choice but to roar like thunder, rush forward with their iron swords held high and their hand axes roaring.
The brutal hand-to-hand combat begins!
Shields collided with each other, and the desperate defenders gathered nearly a thousand people, all of whom were blocked at the collapsed stone gate.
The disgraced Liudov sat here for a consultation and shouted in disbelief: "Block them! Push them out of the gap! Kill them! Use their corpses to build a new wall!"
The defenders were already in a desperate situation. They gritted their teeth or screamed, and thrust their weapons straight ahead, which really put the attackers under tremendous pressure.
A large number of these Danish warriors from Zealand are unarmored. They don't care that the defenders in the fortress may be of the same race. They kill the defenders and loot the spoils to immediately improve their own lives. This is the origin of their desperate efforts.
But now, these warriors who charge the most fiercely are in a dilemma...
The defenders' spearheads stabbed wildly, and the round shields could block it for a while. As long as a spear broke through the gap and stabbed hard, it meant the death of a soldier.
On the battlefield surrounding the collapsed stone gate, the army could only pass through the gap with a small number of people, and even with a strong force they could not deploy. Moreover, these armies of the new Danish Kingdom belonged to various lords, and each lord was eager to gain profits first, so the battlefield changed.
There was no plan, and countless sword and shield players wanted to enter the city quickly.
As a result, the Ross army, which had superior equipment, was completely blocked in the rear, and was completely unaware of the melee taking place in the city.
Poor Telalang had many bruises on his body. He took his surviving brothers back to the Ross military formation, and sat on the ground in frustration for a moment, breathing heavily.
"Ah! I almost thought you were pressed down there." When he said this, Siput's heart was still beating wildly. "How many people have you come back?"
"As you can see, six."
"Ah? Everyone else was crushed to death?"
"Maybe." Tralan didn't want to say more: "I feel like my bones are broken a lot, and I almost died. The battle is like this, I won't come again next time..."
After that, he passed out directly. If he hadn't been checked and was still breathing, Sipuyote really thought that this guy died in the battle.
The warriors sent cooperated with Ragnar's door-breaking warriors, and sacrificed tragically in exchange for the collapse of the stone door.
Tralan was carried to the rear to rest with the resting cavalry.
Looking at the current situation, the well-organized Russian army can only passively watch the battle!
In a truly anxious battlefield, soldiers from both the offensive and defensive sides are piled together like sardines in a can.
Spyot, on the other hand, took a leave of absence from the air to support the Allied forces, but he gave up because he was afraid that doing so would hurt friendly forces.
Until, Ragnar himself, who took the risk to get close to the front line to understand the battle situation, rushed to Siput's side in a hurry.
"They are fighting around the stone wall, and the defenders have used their bodies to create new walls. Hurry up and use your weapons to fire javelins!"
"Ah?" Siputu's beard trembled in shock: "Wouldn't it hurt your people?"
"I can't care too much anymore! If the javelin can kill the enemy and break their front, we will win!"
"Okay. This is likely to hurt friendly forces. Don't blame me afterwards..."
"Bah! If I blame you, let Thor strike me to death with lightning!"
Siputi calmed down and ordered all the torque slingshots to be adjusted to extreme shooting angles.
The javelin was inserted into the slide, the shooting angle reached an astonishing 70 degrees, and the charge was reduced, and twenty javelins fired in a salvo.
The slingshot shooting was accompanied by the crossbow's projectile. At this time, Siputu put most of his long-range troops into support.
In the city, the terrifying warriors have been going on for a while. The first warriors from both the offensive and defensive sides to come into contact have been killed. Even if they are injured, they will be trampled to death once they fall to the ground.
The soldiers fought fiercely in the special mud created by blood, and the battle became a struggle of will.
The Battle of the Gap in the City Wall was unprecedentedly intense. In this objectively cramped battlefield, the defenders with overwhelming strength were able to hold on for a long time.
Until a whistling sound came from the sky...
Those javelins were spinning and falling from the sky, their tail feathers whistling as they rubbed against the air. It hit them hard at an almost vertical angle, and any wooden shield was meaningless to it.
The iron helmet was smashed through, and the chainmail armor was smashed through. Because the javelin is a "blind fire", the roughly aimed projectile makes the impact point become a probability surface covering the entire city gate battlefield. It kills indiscriminately, and those who hit the javelin are often penetrated through the body.
Killed one after another.
Liudov never imagined that this was also the way of war.
"The Normans are simply beasts. They even killed their own people?!"
Some subordinates couldn't bear it anymore and shouted at the top of their lungs: "Sir, we must withdraw. If you stand here any longer, you will die!"
"No! I won't withdraw." Although Liu Doufu was very tired, he still had to persevere.
"Sir, please listen to me just once! We can't hold on any longer, so we have no choice but to retreat to the inner city."
Liudov remained unmoved until several javelins fell not far in front of him.
He was a soldier who was dismounted and fighting on foot, but he was pierced alive by a javelin and died tragically.
To make matters worse, the enemy's arrows were flying down, and the defenders' casualties were increasing rapidly.
Just when Liudov was hesitant, his last cronies simply took strong measures, lifted Liudov up and retreated to the inner fort at the rear.
At first, the defenders who were still fighting around the collapsed city gate did not see that their commander had retreated. They suffered continuous casualties and continued to fight while standing on the corpses.
As someone saw the commander-in-chief Liudov, even his battle flag had disappeared, the tense spirit was instantly deflated.
"Ah! Our army is defeated!"
"Everyone, please retreat quickly! Go to the inner castle..."
When someone screams like this, the news spreads throughout the cramped battlefield in an instant. They can no longer hold on to the defense line that is supported purely by willpower and instantly collapses.
Therefore, after fighting hard to the end and finally holding the attackers back from collapsing, these New Danish Royal Army soldiers quickly advanced, just like the turbulent waves after the dam broke and poured into the outer city.
What appeared before them now was a large number of stone and wooden houses, each room filled with treasures.
They screamed excitedly. At first, they pursued the fleeing people ruthlessly, and in an instant, it turned into a simple robbery.
Continue to pursue the victory? No! The brothers came in after suffering heavy casualties. The enemy must have been hoarding them, otherwise they wouldn't be so desperate.
The soldiers searched the houses one by one and killed all those who could not escape in time. They rummaged through the boxes and cabinets in search of silver and gold coins, and stuffed the less valuable copper coins into their pockets.
They went to work for every potter, hoping to find gold and silver, but unfortunately there was almost no harvest. They searched for warehouses, but could not find gold or silver, and also collected the confiscated salted fish and dried meat.
Some women were dragged out wailing, and children were killed directly. These Danish warriors from Zealand were looting and killing as they pleased. Such a horrific scene was deeply distressing for Eskil, who had already fled and was observing from the inner fortress.
.
"Oh God! Please send down thunder to kill these barbarians! The poor lamb is dying..." However, who in the entire Aleb Fortress understands the Russian army better than Eskil?
For the defenders, there is no need to identify whether they are the Ross Army or the New Denmark Army. Anyway, the flags set up by the attackers the most are Ross's. The current killings are exactly what they are doing.
The wound on his head finally healed, and after fighting for a long time with the injury, Liudov retreated to the inner fort and still had high adrenaline to support his mental body.
The inner fort is smaller and the building is more solid. There are as many as 5,000 refugees concentrated in the small interior. The refugees are almost all women and children. These people can only bring internal friction and are a pure burden to the defense.
At first, Liudov and his cronies thought so too, but now anyone who can take up arms must participate in the defense.
Liu Doufu's strong body collapsed. He was so exhausted that he fell into coma immediately after lying down.
Seeing this, Eskil felt like the sky was falling!
There was chaos in the inner castle, and Eskil, who had experienced all kinds of big scenes, had never seen this before.
What should we do now? Eskil pretended to be calm and gathered all the priests on the high ground inside, which was actually the commanding heights of the entire mound.
This place is where the monastery is. He prayed to God in the simple stone monastery, and outside he prayed to the believers kneeling together in Latin, desperately reciting Latin scriptures and praying for a miracle to come.
However, there was already chaos outside the city.
Theoretically, when the Russian and New Danish coalition forces attacked the outer city, a large number of women and children could escape through the second gate.
Because of fear, everyone chose a safe fortress and gathered together independently, so that now the inner fortress has become a crowded place.
Liudolf was resting in the stone room. The taller and stronger stone wall of the inner castle was full of people. However, this place was already on the top of the hill, and there were pieces of stone under the thin layer of soil. It was almost impossible to dig a defensive trench here.
.
Without trenches, the defenders could only rely on tall stone walls for protection. More stones began to be stuffed into the fragile gate, but the stones were no longer enough.
Liudov's identity is a count, and most of his cavalry have the title of baron. These cavalry have now been fought to the last tenth, and their surviving horses are all concentrated in the inner fort. The current situation is really impossible to charge on horseback.
They were not leaderless, a group of barons stepped forward and spontaneously exercised their authority on Liudov's behalf.
Faced with a life-and-death situation, they directly abandoned many of the rules and precepts of their faith.
There were thirty of the most elite armored and dismounted cavalry, together with more than a hundred armed peasants, rushing towards the monastery on the top of the hill.
Eskil sensed that something was not good about the situation: "Children, kneel down. The Lord will forgive your sins."
One baron said angrily: "Pedantry! God has abandoned us, and now we can only save ourselves."
"Ah? What did you say?!"
Another baron asked Eskilde to step aside, and immediately led his men to demolish the monastery with great fanfare.
This move made the women on their knees clasp their heads and howl in shock. Esquier yelled that this was the most shameless blasphemy: "What are you doing? What's the difference between destroying a monastery and those barbarians?"
The little priests who came to stop him were overthrown, and soon the whole monastery collapsed.
"Quick! Pile the stones for the city gate! Move the small stones to the city wall!" A baron ordered.
Seeing the monastery in ruins, Eskil was not so angry that he fainted directly. He knew too much about this kind of destruction of sacred places. For example, the St. Peter's Abbey in Bremen was burned down, all because of Norman barbarism.
People, or in other words, it was done by the Russians.
If there had been no war, Liudov's men would never have done this. Eskil could barely carry it. Although he was reluctant, he also knew that the defenders wanted to get a large number of stones to kill the enemy and save the lives of the people. The Lord would
Forgive the disrespect.
But what happened next completely puzzled and shocked him as a priest, and he shouted that it was a complete betrayal of faith.
How can a woman be a warrior?! Women can only take care of children at home and engage in peaceful cloth production. If a woman takes up arms and kills, her soul will fall into hell!
Eskil's outlook on life couldn't stand this, but there was nothing he could do.
Boys over ten years old, old men, and even all young women in the inner castle were forcibly recruited into the militia.
Although many women were reluctant, the defenders pulled these women up to the top of the city and pointed them at the enemies who were frantically destroying the outer city.
"You see clearly, they are robbing and killing and humiliating those who have not escaped. Do you want to be like that?"
There was no need for the defenders to be frightened, because there were already more than 5,000 New Danish troops of all kinds who had invaded the city. They looted and wandered everywhere, but they did not gather their troops to attack the stronghold of the inner fortress.
Just like the chaos at the beginning of the landing, the outer city is now in the same chaos.
The houses left behind by the people were stolen by the attackers, and the property looted by their own skills was put into their own pockets. The captured women became toys for their brothers.
They unabashedly showed their most barbaric side to the people trapped in the inner castle. Seeing the tragedies that were happening, those war-weary women cried endlessly and resolutely took up weapons, even if the weapons were wooden sticks.
The city was destroyed, but not completely destroyed.
It was already afternoon, and there was chaos inside Waiguo City. It was almost impossible to unite the army and fight again.
Ragnar had no joy in breaking the city. The inner castle was still standing on a high place. The lords of Zealand in his new Danish army were free to plunder with their men. These people couldn't move at all. Let's look at it again.
The losses of hundreds of his loyal subordinates were really considerable.
He hurriedly withdrew outside the city and negotiated with the Russian army who had not entered the city for a long time.
During this negotiation, what we heard were the complaints of the Russian army.
Spyot was speechless about the current war situation: "Ragnar, you can't restrain your army! You don't have the ability at all! Even though the battle is still going on, your people gave up the battle and became thieves."
What could Ragnar do? He couldn't express his pain, he could only think "Ah, yes, yes, yes" in his heart.
He reluctantly tried to save his face: "The city is so chaotic. I saw the enemy hiding in a big turtle shell! Our battering ram is broken now, so we really can't break the city. What's more, it's getting late now."
"That's true. Well, I don't want to risk my elite men anymore."
As soon as he heard that Spyot had surrendered, Ragnar immediately shouted: "Then surround the fortress inside. We will fight them! Besides, we should wait for King Rurik's main force."
The army needs to rest, and a large number of corpses killed in battle need to be buried or burned.
Ragnar wanted to seize the glory of the entire fortress, so his talk of "waiting for Rurik's main force" was just talk. He really had no time to take care of the group of lords who were busy making a fortune, so he took the time to cut down trees nearby and rebuild the siege ram.
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This move was noticed by Siput and other Russian generals, and everyone can understand Ragnar's reluctance.
This battle consumed a lot of money from the Russian army. What was worse was that the huge coalition army needed a lot of food. The ships began to fish nearby, but plundering nearby areas was also a good way to cope with the loss of supplies.
Ragnar will most likely launch a strong attack tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow at the latest. Spyot admires the bravery of these Zealand Danes, but the key to victory is discipline, and the icing on the cake with excellent weapons.
Discipline is the most important thing. The generals of the Russian Army were able to restrain their own people from running around. They did not enter the chaotic outer city. At most, they only fought on the battlefield at the city gate, recovering reusable javelins and arrows from the pile of corpses.
At night, the outer city was covered with bonfires, and the dancing flames extended all the way to the seaside village of Lindholm, so that there were flames dancing in the sea.
The Ross ships used flames as light sources to attract herrings, and the sunken nets were pulled up at the right time, using this technique to catch a large number of fish. The new fish caught will be used as tomorrow's military rations.
However, war horses cannot eat fish.
The Russian army camped outside the city, but a large number of soldiers failed to capture it. They whispered to each other that the allies had made a fortune, and lamented the crazy defensive will of the defenders and their own horrific losses.
Sitting around the campfire, Fisk was resting with a gloomy look on his face.
"Fool, this is war. Your Majesty will never complain about the loss of your cavalry." Spyot patted his shoulder.
"Alas. We were all brothers who lived together day and night...and suddenly died in battle."
"It's better to think of something better! Haven't you noticed that although we are a partial division, we are clearly fighting a decisive battle. We are executing a battle that exceeds our capabilities. We are fighting the Frank army! We are fighting an enemy who is stronger than us!"
"But they are not strong." Fisk shook his head, still looking a little embarrassed.
"Okay... I also think that the Frankish soldiers are nothing more than that." Spyot thought for a while: "Since you think you have done a bad job, then make another meritorious service."
"Tomorrow's attack? I think Ragna can't wait."
"No. You can't let the cavalry fly over a taller city wall. I'm worried that the enemy will have a large number of reinforcements to rescue this fortress. You can just bring the cavalry around and plunder freely to create chaos. Especially if you go to the north, I think Huo
That guy Rick has been defeated, maybe you can still meet the king's main force."
Hearing this, Fisk smiled bitterly: "Horik is a coward, maybe I can still kill his defeated troops."
"It's not impossible. You go ahead! Don't worry, I'm willing to give up the main attack glory to Ragnar tomorrow. I don't want our Ross army to die again."
"You are so generous..."
"Childish." Spuyot reached out and touched Fisk's bald head angrily, "I have traveled around and seen too much, especially in Britain. I have seen many wonderful things. Remember, there are a large number of Danes in the garrison, and Ragnar is also
Danes. This is their Danish civil war, and their crazy internal strife is beneficial to our Rus."
"Okay, I won't talk anymore." Now Fisk seemed to understand. He thought about it again. It is true that a war horse cannot have wings and fly over the enemy's city. It would be better to plunder outside the city.