Once upon a time, the vast and sparsely populated Flanders region was an independent kingdom. This country has entered the kingdom era from the era of tribal alliances until it directly bordered the expanding Frankish kingdom.
Once upon a time, the territory did not have today's huge Frankish territory, and its north directly faced three so-called "barbarian countries", which were Germanic forces that were similar in blood.
They are, respectively, the Kingdom of Flanders, the Grand Duchy of Saxony, and the Grand Duchy of Thuringia.
There is another special existence, which is the westernmost descendant of the "Wenderslav ethnic group". It has a small population and is extremely weak, and was easily annexed by the Franks.
Whether it is a kingdom or a grand duchy, their ethnic composition is different from that of Frank. They believe in the sacred tree, Odin and the World Tree. This is Frank's excuse to conquer them, thus covering up the kingdom's desire for expansion.
In other words, when the Frankish Kingdom entered the imperial era, only expansion could maintain the stability of the empire.
So once the empire stopped expanding, civil war broke out immediately. Now, since the death of the old king Louis the Pious in 839, the three princes have led the entire Franks into civil war.
The kingdom under the rule of Charlemagne, the common grandfather of the three princes, was very strong at that time, and no one from the surrounding ethnic groups was dissatisfied. Even the Pope in Rome wanted to anoint him with holy oil and crown him "Emperor of the Romans".
The Kingdom of Flanders was defeated and merged with Frankia.
At the beginning, the nobility was not liquidated, and the defeated nobles were awarded the title of marquis, or "border earl".
This was a means of transition. According to Charlemagne's plan, a large number of Franks would migrate to these newly conquered lands, thereby changing the composition of the local people. At the same time, a large number of Franks would move out to alleviate the overly dense population in the core areas of rule.
Because, in this era dominated by rugged agriculture, the population of the kingdom under Charlemagne actually increased to 12 million. Even though the people were still scattered, every yeoman family that could serve must take care of the overly large
Only by adopting a rotation system in farmland can we ensure that famine will not occur.
Only expansion can alleviate the suffering of the people and satisfy the aristocracy's desire for expansion.
Just like the defeated and surrendered Saxon Archduke Widukind, who was originally renamed a marquis but still called himself a grand duke internally.
Charlemagne has been ruling the country for a very long time. When he gets older, he finally has to consider making some decisions for his death.
When he was young, Charles was used to seeing nobles killing each other. He was worried that after his death, his children would kill each other until the kingdom was wiped out. He was worried that the surrenderers in the border areas would rebel, so he should take some measures to avoid such an outcome.
Therefore, since he began to "divide the kingdom into three parts to avoid civil war among the great nobles", it became a national policy.
Starting from him, all the indigenous marquises of the "border counties" were replaced by Frankish nobles.
This move had completely different impacts on different regions. The Flanders region accepted this fate smoothly. The Frisian nobles abdicated and were replaced by the Counts of Flanders installed by Charlemagne. The region
The downgrade of the title also means that in theory the kingdom can directly control it. However, the newly promoted earl immediately chose to cooperate with the native nobles of Flanders, relying on marriage and moderate political means to maintain the stability of the family rule. This is such a move
, it seems that the Count of Flanders is very incompetent militarily.
As for the Saxon region, Widukind, who was already a "court official", immediately raised his troops to rebel after hearing that the king wanted to reduce the vassal state. The Saxon restoration movement broke out, forcing Charlemagne to personally conquer the country. The movement failed, and although Widukind was not killed,
The family had been reduced to a nobleman living under surveillance and moved to the Frankish hinterland, seemingly forever away from the chance of rebellion. The old land of Saxony was immediately moved to more Falak immigrants, and the border countdom was dismantled into the Count of Bremen.
Territory and the earldom of Hamburg.
Just southeast of Saxony, there is the Thuringia region. The Thuringians were integrated into Frankia two hundred years ago, and it is not unacceptable for the whole family to accept the rule of a Frankish noble. Because the Thuringians directly faced
They are other foreign races, they are Pomeranians and Polish tribes. Even the Franks who migrated here must work together with the Thuringians to withstand the victory of these "Pan-Wendslavs"
After a wave of expansion, it was still because the Franks had better weapons and equipment and better military organization. Without these foreign aid, the Thuringians did not feel that they could defend their territory.
However, just thirty years after Charlemagne's death, the posthumous pattern he designed, so-called no civil war in the kingdom and no rebellion on the border, all came to nothing.
He overestimated the continuity of his family's bloodline, and as a result, only Charles's family survived. He also underestimated the magnanimity of his three grandsons. Unexpectedly, his grandson Lothair wanted everything. It was Charlemagne himself who set an example and let Lothair
Tire felt that he had to bring Frank into a new era based on the great grandfather, so the first priority was to cut down the vassal, and then become as great as Augustus.
Of course, Charlemagne had calculated everything, but he could not have calculated that in the north of the Baltic Sea, the so-called unknown world could give birth to powerful ice power.
Just like the cold wave that occurs every winter across Europe, one day the Normans can unite and launch a southern invasion with a stronger military and stronger purpose.
The descendants of the appeased Widukind family regained the glory of their ancestors and Saxony was restored.
Even Flanders, which smoothly accepted the abdication and became dominated by the Frankish nobility, encountered purposeful invasion.
All this was given by Rurik, the greatest king of the Normans, the great man blessed by Odin, the monarch of the East Slavs, the suzerain of the Finns, and the leader respected by all the Nordic forces.
Now, the great Rurik was slightly tired and led a powerful army with concentrated essence to rush towards the north of Flanders County in a battleship.
A special noble led his meager number of only ten followers, so-called special allies, to accompany Rurik's squadron on the expedition.
He was none other than Henry Nassau.
It was the first time he sat on a ship as tall as a mound, and it felt like a dream. The entire fleet was still rushing along the coastline in the north wind in autumn. Standing on the deck, the strong wind seemed to blow him away, but the ship did not
The ups and downs are too violent, even so Nassau still has to endure the weird seasickness.
This is very strange. My hometown in Nassau is close to the Lanhe River and the Rhine River. Inland navigation is not a problem, but when I get to the sea, my stomach starts to turn.
He was holding on to the wooden railing of the ship, looking at the undulating waves, and kept retching, and his spirit was depressed.
After all, his own situation was not good, and he was lucky enough to survive the previous defeat. As for the former enemies becoming current allies, many fantastic things have happened. The great nobles have announced their separation from Frank in the civil war.
There is no need to debate whether this political adventure is worth it.
Because Nassau itself has no choice.
Liudov would send a guide to lead the Russian-Danish coalition to Utrecht in Flanders, and he would not care how to plunder it afterwards.
Since we need a guide, it doesn’t hurt to have one more.
Henry Nassau is one of the guides. Just because he knows that the mouth of the Rhine River is within the county of Flanders. If a piece of land there is to be allocated to himself in the future to become a new county, there is currently an unnamed earl to take it.
Shao, I am very motivated to see the situation for myself.
Naturally, he also had his inner Xiao Jiujiu, who called on King Rurik of Rus and King Ragnar of Denmark not to kill the locals indiscriminately.
"You shouldn't go here just to rob and kill. I will be the ruler there in the future, and I will also do trade with you in the future. If the locals are wiped out by you Normans, it will be like killing a cow. You will never even think about it in the future.
Get the cow. Therefore, we should raise a flag that the locals are Frisians, not Franks, expel the Franks, and let the locals recognize the Principality of Saxony as the suzerain, which will facilitate my future rule."
What Henry Nassau said makes sense. Ragnar felt that this guy was too greedy. He was an enemy or a prisoner a few days ago, and his attitude changed faster than that of a businessman. Is it really just for profit, and the honor of the warrior can be completely ignored? This makes
Ragnar is very shameless.
What Rurik felt was a deep shock.
How could a village leader, Henry Nassau, have such a long-term idea? This man actually came up with a reason that was enough to make him cautious about killing people - he still had to do business in the future.
What Nassau said revealed two pieces of information. One is that the locals just want to live, and it doesn't matter who becomes the lord. The second is even more interesting. There is an estuary of the Rhine River there. Going up the river, ships can not only enter Europe
In the hinterland, you can also enter the village of Nassau in the Rheingau region.
Henry Nassau was a pragmatic man. They had fought each other before because he had to be loyal to Count Robert of the Rheingau. Now that he had taken refuge with Liudolf, Duke of Saxony, he naturally had no reason to be an enemy of Ross Denmark.
Because of the change in stance, the enemy became an ally, and the subordinates who died in the previous battle died?
Ragnar didn't understand this very much. He despised the character of this guy in Nassau, but he did not exclude this person from occupying Flanders in the future. Because Flanders Durist is near the mouth of the Rhine River, and it is
The colonial town in Denmark was once owned by Horik. Isn't it natural that Ragnar will inherit it now?
(Durist in this era is close to Rotterdam)
Some intelligence even pointed out that the land distance between Utrecht, the main target this time, and Durist was relatively close. In theory, there would be no problem for Denmark to retake this colonial town.
So during the voyage, the three people made a conspiracy.
Gu Suan
Nassau will seize most of the Flanders territory. After the Russian-Danish coalition helps him achieve this, it will naturally gain considerable benefits.
The core point of this interest is the ownership of Durist. Even if it is now occupied by the Franks, the geographical advantage is huge. The houses, warehouses, and docks can be rebuilt in the future. But it must be a place for all Nobels.
As far as Manchu people are concerned, Freeport is just like it used to be.
Nassau agreed without even thinking about it.
Nassau has only one request: "Don't kill indiscriminately. You first arrest people and then loot their property. Give me a chance to persuade the locals to surrender to me, and I will protect their lives. This way you get
Wealth, I gained the people.”
This was a win-win situation. Rurik secretly admired this Nassau man for his ambition to become a tycoon, but he was too weak and could only work for the strong. Even if he became a count, he would not be able to make any splash.
But Ragnar thought this was outrageous.
"You are also an outsider to them, how can you force them to surrender to you with just one mouth?" he said.
Nassau had his own explanation: "But they don't want to be killed by you."
Only a factual example can test whether the win-win plan planned by both parties is reliable.
Theoretically, the fleet can sail as fast as two days and arrive at the coastal city of Utrecht in the bay on the evening of the next day.
Because the geographical structure of this era is very different from that of a thousand years later, Flanders is a mixture of the Netherlands and Belgium, and the main part is still in the Netherlands. At this time, large-scale land reclamation had not yet been done, and a large amount of land was
It was still a shallow sea at that time. Thousands of years later, Utrecht, which was already an inland city, is now a coastal town.
Similarly, Groningen, a large village in the north of the region, is now also a Frisian coastal town.
Groningen can be said to be a town, its size is about the size of a large European village, and its population is only three hundred people. Its original meaning is "green field", which is Groenngard in Norse, and its geographical location is indeed
A very flat coastal field facing the ocean. This environment is not suitable for growing wheat, but it is very suitable for grazing. The green grass soaked by the sea breeze and salt spray is slightly salty, which gives the milk produced by the cows a unique salty and fresh taste.
Cheese is also more.
However, the high-yielding Holstein dairy cows of this era were not born, and Groningen, like other towns, was unable to develop dairy products as an industry.
The town does have its own specialty industry - wool.
Groningen is very conspicuous because only one hand can count the villages in the huge surrounding area. This town has undoubtedly become the foothold of the Ross-Danish army, mainly because there is a ready-made small dock and ship berth here. They saw
The local fishing boats realized that there was a village in the area and immediately targeted Groningen.
Nassau wanted to conduct an experiment here. He knew that the Norman army could easily surround the entire village. Whether to kill all the people was all at the whim of King Rurik of Rus.
Who can save the lives of these people? “After all, it’s only me!”
Capture a village and town, loot some to replenish supplies, rest for a night and then attack Utrecht tomorrow.
With a clear goal, the coalition forces are highly motivated.
Of course, they were also pragmatic and had no illusions about the villages they discovered.
What can you grab in a coastal village? At most, a small amount of slaves and a small amount of fish. There are rumors that the Frisians are good at raising sheep. If you can get a batch of wool from this place, it will be a worthwhile trip.
Rurik was looking forward to getting sheep and wool in this area.
As a result, the Norman army appeared in the sea visible to the naked eye from the town of Groningen.
The fishermen who first discovered the anomaly had no idea what they were seeing. Those floating objects were actually ships? There were very obvious signs hanging on the mast, because the flag was a flag with blue strips of cloth sewn on the diagonal.
, it looks like a rotating cross flag.
Ordinary fishermen didn't even think about escaping for their lives at the first time. They knew that the north of them was also Frankish territory. Maybe the earl there had sent a large envoy to come south to do business with the earl.
So the nobles would be interested in getting into trouble with fishermen?
The fishing boats evaded on their own, deliberately keeping a distance from what they thought were noble ships. They also took the initiative to move towards their hometowns, until they noticed that this surprisingly large fleet was heading straight for their hometown villages.
Rurik stood on the deck, wearing a bearskin coat and ignoring the wind and waves.
The weather is not good today, and it might rain in the next few days.
Although the wind and waves are not so high, it still brings some challenges to the process of the Russian soldiers getting from the big ship to the long oar boat. The big ship has all anchored near the shore, and the remaining landing operations need to be completed by small boats to avoid being stranded.
.
The soldiers moved lightly and boarded the longboat along the rope ladder thrown from the big ship. After the longboat was fully loaded, they immediately pulled out the long oars and headed straight to the small dock visible to the naked eye.
Whether it is a small boat unloaded from a large ship that can only accommodate ten people, or a traditional rowing boat that can be towed and can fit forty people into it.
The first wave of coalition landing troops consisted of 800 people. The soldiers stood at the bow of the boat holding flags, and the soldiers on the same boat rowed hard. The first people to land waded ashore, and then pushed the semi-stranded boat away for
The brothers who were left behind on the boat quickly went back to pick up another boatload of brothers.
The landing people lined up on the shore. They had occupied the pier. They saw soldiers wearing white robes and blue stripes everywhere. They were very neatly dressed and held a large number of flags with the same pattern.
Obviously only Frank's regular army can have such a military appearance. Because Ragnar's men also put on serious clothes to keep out the cold, the appearance of the pirates with tattoos on their bare backs does not exist at all. This is the first thing that people who stop to watch think of.
He is a noble Frankish warrior.
The villagers had never seen such a strange sight. A group of well-dressed foreigners suddenly came to the isolated town that lacked stories. Instead of running away, they took the initiative to greet them and take a look at the situation.
Even the lord who manages the village, a Frisian Baron of Groningen, came with his entourage to find out.
The black-robed priests of the monastery also held cross flags and carried black wooden crosses to direct the somewhat chaotic crowd, intending to welcome the so-called temporary rest of the northern Frankish nobles with enough dignity.
In fact, the flag of the Kingdom of Rus is like a cross flag rotated 45°, which really deceives these people who actively choose to live in isolation.
It’s also because Groningen’s life from lord to villager was too closed off.
Even if some people thought that these people who suddenly emerged from the sea were very similar to the Danish pirates who occupied the port of Durist, no one took it seriously.
The fact is that the pirates have been defeated by King Ludwig himself, and even the civilians know about it. The baron here learned another thing, which was explained by the Count of Flanders himself. The so-called neighbor Westphalia
The earl (Liudov) was demoted to Denmark, which means that Denmark has been controlled and monitored by Frankish forces. He optimistically tells everyone that there may be Norman pirates in the future. They are all a very small number of poor fishermen who will never be seen again.
Threaten everyone's lives.
The problem is that the burning of Bremen was kept secret. When the Bishop of Utrecht learned of the incident, he was devastated and ordered the news to be blocked to avoid panic in the diocese he was responsible for.
The prelates kept silent, and the Count of Flanders, although he knew of the matter, kept the information secret from the people.
Anyway, the Normans did not attack their own territory, so why worry about it? As for the general public, they can just live peacefully. Tell them these terrible things, and you have to tell them what the city of Hamburg is and what the city of Bremen is. Really
It's unnecessary. If you delay farming, won't you be able to collect enough taxes in kind? That's asking for trouble.
The port of Durist is in his own hands. It was once a colony of Norman pirates. The pirates also arrogantly called themselves "Counts of Flanders". Now the arbitrators have long since given up and left.
Now the real title of earl has been smoothly transferred to the mixed-race nobleman Baudouin, and he has undoubtedly become a ruler that most Frisians are willing to accept. All because this man is half Frisian.
Bloodline, nothing more.
Ordinary people do not and dare not have any unreasonable thoughts. They obey the arrangements of their lords and go to the monastery every Sunday to listen to scriptures. Their daily life consists of farming at sunrise and sleeping at sunset, plowing in the spring, shearing wool in the midsummer, and harvesting wheat and wheat in the autumn.
flax, and then stock up on supplies for the winter.
Now, the peaceful autumn life of Groningen people is facing a big crisis.