Chapter 953 The Battle of the South Bank of the Elbe River
A large number of local Saxons did not send the wheat tribute they needed to pay to Hamburg. Now they are facing war, and this work has to be postponed.
In the upper reaches of the Elbe River, a number of emerging Saxon camps appeared on its north bank.
These Saxon people were led by aristocratic leaders who continued to retain the power of the nobility because their ancestors surrendered to Charlemagne. They did not receive Frankish titles, but used to use the Saxon graf as their title. Its original meaning is "tribal chief".
The entire village obeyed the leader's arrangements. Out of consideration for maximizing their own interests, they recognized Liudov's power as a duke and were willing to pay tribute. However, it would be too hasty to organize men to fight for him now.
A large number of villages did not even send scouts to find out more detailed information, they just waited for the drama in the Hamburg area to come to an end.
In this way, if Liudov and the Norman army win, they will continue to be loyal and deliver the remaining food tribute.
If the Frankish army wins, they will continue to declare their loyalty to the Franks and give some food as a so-called tribute.
Which one of them will win and who will help? With the situation unclear, most of the Saxons, who have a large population, are sitting on the sidelines.
Of course, the Saxons with a population of 500,000 were greatly diluted by the huge area. Liudov directly controlled more than 20,000 Saxons in the Hamburg area, and this did not include the Saxons north of the Schleswig Great Wall.
He was stunned to have assembled an army of 8,000 men. Even with a large number of people, the gathering of militiamen was really intimidating.
He would not let the weak troops line up on the other side, so he selected a thousand of the best from the army. In the early morning weapons, the soldiers lined up in two columns and passed through the crescent-shaped pontoon bridge, arriving at the other side anxiously.
.
At least these people had eaten breakfast, which was a lot of cooked oats, luxuriously rich in salt.
Cooked oatmeal and sprinkled with a pinch of salt have become commonplace for today's Russian army, and those who have developed a taste for something different are eager to eat something different.
For the Saxon militia, they lived inland. Even if they were close to the sea, the villagers would not leave their farming villages unless necessary, so the way to obtain salt was restricted to the Franks.
It was a good thing to mix with the Danes and Rus. These foreign armies were huge and they also consumed a lot of salt, so they set up a place at the mouth of the sea and set up a large pot to boil salt.
The extremely low blood sodium and potassium levels were greatly improved. After eating wheat rice before the battle, the bodies of a thousand Saxon warriors were full of strength.
They formed a formation on the other side of the river, barely arranging the team, and then began to whisper to each other uncontrollably.
This group of people are quite casually dressed and have a variety of weapons and equipment. The most elite of them, more than 400 people, are dressed like Viking warriors, while the rest are simply farmers. However, they have unified a special weapon - a sharpened weapon.
wooden pole.
All wooden poles are chopped from small straight red pine trees. After peeling off the bark, the wooden poles are thinned. Such a wooden pole can be equivalent to five meters, which is Rurik's requirement.
Five stikas are long, which is basically the same length as the lance of the Frank cavalry.
Each of them handles his or her own wooden poles. In fact, this matter does not require any education at all. In ordinary times, Saxon people process wood into building materials, and the tools are familiar, but now they just make extra-long thin wooden poles.
Liudov on horseback paraded in front of his troops, stopped their whispering, and kept giving orders: "First put all the spears on the ground! Put them on your right hand! Do as we said in advance! Do not be afraid,
Follow orders!"
The soldiers' chattering reluctantly stopped, and the things they discussed before were quite simple.
How to fight? It's just a matter of gathering a large group of brothers, armed with axes and shields, rushing up to fight with the enemy, and finally winning in a pool of blood. A smarter way to fight is to form a shield wall at the front, so that in the contact
In an instant, the brothers used a shield wall to overwhelm the enemy, giving them an advantage in the subsequent bloody battle.
They had never arrayed themselves like this before. Knowing that if there was a battle, the brothers would abandon their wooden shields and use their spears to fight against the Frankish cavalry.
The Saxon warriors were uneasy because in their perception, the "hedgehog formation" in which infantry groups spread out their spears was really an overly advanced tactic.
But they soon heard songs that sounded like the Pomeranian language.
Everyone looked sideways at the river where the mist was gradually dispersing, where troops were walking in neat steps.
Those people are not Russians, let alone Danes. Their hair tends to be brown, and their stature is a little shorter than the tall and strong Russians. But they are indeed members of the Russian army. It is said that they are the foreign allies recruited by the King of Rus in the far east.
This is the Slavic army, with a strength of a thousand. Rurik's brother-in-law Medvet led this army, almost all from Novgorod, to launch a new war in the far east. It is embarrassing to say that, although he has fought all the way from
When Scandinavia reached the Elbe River, the Slavic army did not take advantage of it. The soldiers' halberds lacked the opportunity to drink blood, and the casualties they produced were probably far lower than those of the 600 shooters of the Finnish army.
This time I finally have the opportunity to make a great contribution.
Medved ordered everyone to sing the folk songs of his hometown, and in conjunction with the drum beats played by the drummer in front of the team, the team left the pontoon in an orderly manner and quickly formed an array on the river beach.
Soldiers are widely equipped with armor, which is called riveting iron sheets to deerskin. The driving part of the soldier is protected, and the rest is only a layer of deerskin that serves as a makeshift armor and protects against the cold. On the surface, it is
You can't tell that they have armor, but they wear white robes with belts tied firmly, and two blue strips of cloth are stitched on the chest and arranged in a staggered manner.
Soldiers have also popularized iron helmets, and put on velvet hats made of fox skin, rabbit skin and other leather outside the helmet. After all, the weather is getting colder now.
They lined up neatly, and the soldiers grasped the halberds with extra-long wooden poles in their hands, as if they were creating a forest along the river. They also had a full meal, and now their bodies are full of strength.
"Listen! Halberd! Take it!"
After giving an order, the forest suddenly disappeared, and all the halberds were placed flat on the right side of the soldier, while the soldier still stood upright.
They have used spear formation as a major training item since they formed an army, and their many successes in actual combat gave the Slavic army great confidence.
Rurik placed this army in his central army. This was definitely not out of personal likes and dislikes. It was definitely not because the commander was his brother-in-law. It was just because what he would face next was a crazy charge by the Frank cavalry with a high probability.
The spear formation of the Russian army was already the last barrier in the final land battle.
In fact, all the coalition infantrymen crossing the river were divided into two types. One type focused on hand-to-hand combat. The primary weapon was a spearhead made of an extra-long wooden pole or a halberd. The "Maruns" of the main flag corps of the Russian army also had to use their swords.
Putting aside his specialty of shield fighting, he armed himself with an extra-long wooden pole and trapped his meat-cutting dagger on the end of the wooden pole to serve as a spearhead.
Can a mere dagger be used as a spearhead? But these meat-cutting daggers are at least longer than the palm of their owner.
Most of the Russian soldiers rowed to the other side, and all the large ships were anchored on the south bank of the Elbe River, almost stranded.
Javlo led all the pan-Finnish archers in the army such as Finland, Koven, Vips, and Rudy. They stood on the deck of the big ship holding longbows, and they also controlled the ship's torsion slingshot.
The ship deck is at a high place, not only does the soldiers have a good view, but the range of fire of long-range weapons is also very good.
As many as a thousand people are required to control long-range weapons on the battleship and use projectiles to strike targets up to 350 meters away. Such a distance is too crazy, because from the edge of the forest to the bank of the river in the dry season,
The distance is only about five hundred meters.
In a sense, if the enemy's cavalry has been lined up and they have just launched an attack, their army can be completely covered by the Russian naval firepower.
And this is just a "floating arrow tower" installed by the Russian army on the Elbe River.
Rurik gathered all the crossbowmen in the army. After all, there was a centurion carrying crossbows in each banner. Even though the Russian army had suffered a lot of losses so far in the war, Rurik still gathered 1,500 crossbowmen.
Archer. In other words, he owns nearly 1,200 wooden arm crossbows (pine gum and birch glue bond deer sinews to make the wooden arms more elastic), and nearly 300 fierce steel arm crossbows.
The wheelbarrow-mounted torsion slingshot that was used in the decisive battle on Visingse Island was even more indispensable. By modifying the small agricultural wheelbarrow in Liudov's hands, Rurik was able to assemble seventy vehicle-mounted slingshots.
Gu Yan
How could such a huge battle be without cavalry troops?
Not only the cavalry, Rurik would not be so stupid as not to even deploy a tactical reserve.
A fleet of forty longships was stationed on the Elbe River. They were some distance away from the main array, and the weapons they carried were swords and shields. They were Danish troops, and King Ragnar was very satisfied with Rurik's response.
His own tactical arrangements. After all, people with high EQ say they like to fight with swords and shields, while people with low EQ are afraid of the Frankish elites all wearing armor. Ragnar will stare at Rurik's flag and move. Once the enemy's Frank cavalry falls into
The battlefield is tense, and the Danish army is about to enter the battlefield.
Fisk's cavalry simply stayed in the city of Hamburg, and Ross's cavalry archer troops should not appear unless necessary. When the time was right, these cavalry quickly entered the war through the pontoon bridge, and it did not take long overall.
Rurik's wishful thinking was a good one. Since the enemy chose war, Ross adopted a national war attitude and invested most of his troops in the battlefield on the south bank of the Elbe River.
Of course he had some reservations. There were still troops stationed in Hamburg, and most of them were the remaining troops of the Saxon militia and the Blue Fox's Unclas-Gothenburg Army.
"This is such a huge army. In my opinion, Ludwig's elite are coming and they will be killed by us!" Liudov was so proud that even his mount was swaying back and forth in excitement.
Rurik was full of confidence: "If they are willing to fight, I will fight with all my strength. I respect that Count Robert very much, but unfortunately, he may be killed by our joint efforts."
"He asked for this!" Liu Duofu gritted his teeth and had to sigh again: "Rejecting negotiations and insisting on fighting, even if his arm is injured, he still fights, which is in line with his character."
"Then if he dies in battle, what will happen to the earldom?" Rurik asked.
"Naturally inherited by his son."
"Oh...that's it. It seems that those nobles have already arranged their future. I am so naive, I still hope to talk to him. But, I don't know if this Robert dares to come."
"He will definitely come." Liu Doufu showed a confident smile on his face.
"Is it because you know him well?"
"It's not just that. He would be a coward if he doesn't come. Besides, if they don't come, wouldn't it be in vain for us to put up such a big battle?"
Hearing this, Rurik couldn't help laughing wildly, and then bared his teeth and growled: "Hurry up then, it's best to end the battle before noon."
At the same time, the Frankish army also prepared accordingly.
Because of the previous morale boost, all the Frankish cavalry believed that the traitor Liudov and the Normans had degenerated into bandits. The attack they launched today was for the thousands of Frankish people who were killed, as well as the slain northern saint Eski.
It is the duty of these elite cavalry to punish the traitors, but now there is an added layer of fury to avenge the deaths of their compatriots.
They feel that what they are doing is the most just thing, and even if they die in battle, their souls will be saved.
In this era, the Pope of Rome had not yet defined as truth the self-righteous statement that "you die in battle to defend your faith and fight against heretics, so that your soul can be redeemed and go directly to heaven", so there was no official crusade.
However, Charlemagne's great expansion was largely guided by this idea, and he found a theoretical basis for his expansion. Then the hereditary elite cavalry trained by him must implement this creed.
"Let's go!" Robert called to the assembled cavalry.
Under the guidance of the trumpeter's bugle, the soldiers who fed their war horses a good meal and had a good meal mounted their horses, arranged their weapons and armor, especially the long and narrow lances in their hands, and began
Walk out of the forest in single file along the forest road.
What is arrogance?
Having already decided to fight, boasting that he had passed the report from Baron Nassau, Robert felt that the enemy's key information had been obtained, and it didn't matter what was left.
He also knew that he had boosted morale through lies, which objectively gave birth to the existence of "nationalism". It is a double-edged sword. If he temporarily avoids it for some reasons, the result will definitely be the rage of the army.
Maybe the three cavalry flag captains chose to go alone.
Because these three flag captains are the de facto military aristocrats of the Franks, it is a pity that their special background does not have titles or fiefs. They most need some victories in exchange for the capital to claim credit in front of Ludwig, thinking that they should be able to exchange for military exploits.
With the status of a baron, he can retire and live a stable life as a lord. After all, no one can stay young forever.
Robert was swayed by the will of all the cavalry. When they came out of the forest, they saw the enemy who had already assembled in formation.
Looking at it, Robert took a deep breath.
The soldiers were frightened by what they saw in front of them. The sand and gravel along the river were covered with enemies. Behind them was the Russian fleet, with a large number of flags fluttering to cover the sky.
The morning sun barely dispelled the coolness of autumn, and the sun shone brightly on the soldiers' helmets.
Baron Nassau came on horseback: "Sir, they have indeed been prepared. This is their entire force. If we attack blindly, we will suffer big losses."
Robert gritted his teeth and pretended to be disdainful: "So what? Our invincible cavalry charged suddenly, how could they escape? This time they were not on the banks of the Weser River. There were too many of them and they could not escape easily.
"
"But we must beware of their terrible arrows."
"It doesn't matter. As long as we are fast enough, we can break through their front line. Then it will be our unilateral killing, and the Elbe River will help us drown them."
"I hope so. However, I still hope you can talk to their leader. Even if it is still a war..."
"No need." Robert shook his head: "What else can we talk about? Are they willing to surrender? Can we accept the traitor's surrender again? Stop talking! Henry, take your soldiers and prepare for the decisive battle. We will line up and charge directly.
!”
What makes him so arrogant that he doesn't even need to negotiate with the opponent for even a few words? Even if he comes over to talk trash, he can still take a good look at the enemy's array from the corner of his eyes, looking for flaws and traps, and for
Provide assistance in subsequent battles.
As a result, the Frank cavalry began to form a formation, and the exaggerated length of the lance formed a forest.
They formed a wide array in front of the Russian army, and their intention was not clear.
Rurik had already dismounted his horse, and Liudov had already retreated to the right wing of the formation to command his Saxon army.
Arik, Konuson the Younger, Kanuf, Herriger, Hellafed, Medvet, these generals of the Russian army were lined up according to their unit numbers. They strictly followed Rurik's arrangements and completely
He hid the spears and halberds placed on the ground, and pretended to be sword and shield bearers. The so-called enchantment soup for the enemy cavalry made them think that the Russian army could be crushed by the iron cavalry.
Everyone, including Liudov's Saxon army, is acting now.
Rurik himself gathered with the archer troops. There were nearly 1,500 warriors holding various crossbows. They were divided into three rows, one standing, the second half kneeling, and the third lying down. The guys in their hands
Already cocked, the looser array allowed them to quickly retreat to the rear after firing.
Because the battlefield along the river is too cramped, in principle it is not suitable for cavalry combat, or even for infantry deployment.
The land archers of the Russian army have only one chance to shoot, and the same goes for the seventy-seat torsion slingshot sandwiched in the middle.
This is enough. Since the other party has no intention of negotiating, then prepare for the cavalry attack and let the Frankish nobles experience the fury of the north!