Chapter 964 Let the Ross flag be planted in Rotterdam
Rurik wanted to find a suitable area for his new Ross store in Flanders.
The so-called Ross Shops refer to this area as the concession area of the Ross people.
It must be close to a river or ocean, must be suitable for navigation, and must be easy to retreat in the event of a major disaster.
Port Durist was undoubtedly his chosen target, even though the port was in ruins.
After completing a short rest, the Ross-Danish coalition began a new operation.
The fleet is divided into two groups. The main force will return to the mouth of the Amstel River, and then continue southward along the coastline. After all, the main force is a large-scale spreader. If you are forced to enter the inland river for navigation, you can take the waterway and turn into the Rhine River, but this is a detour.
This move is obviously unnecessary.
Most of the combat forces have withdrawn to the estuary, boarded the ship and started sailing south.
Rurik and Ragnar took their elite troops and took a renegade yet traditional rowing longboat, heading south from the city of Utrecht in the inland waterway, heading straight to the main channel of the Rhine, and heading straight to the ruins of Durist.
Even if the weather gets colder, the next step is to attack Antwerp. Legend has it that there is a lot of wool, food and money there. Although the soldiers have been tired after participating in the war for more than half a year, the thought of targeting a big city in the south and looting it without restraint can be ordered three times.
If the sword is not sealed for a day, the fatigue disappears without a trace.
The soldiers rowed long oars and could not help but sing songs from their hometown.
This was a pain for the fifteen feudal knights who accompanied them, as well as the Baron of Groningen. They were unhappy. They called for forming an army of servants, but only a few responded. Each knight only had two or three personal servants accompanying him. They could have recruited more
Many farmers and herdsmen fought for themselves, but the so-called war that followed was to join the Normans in doing evil. It was really impossible to recruit many people.
They must also go, and any objection will be regarded as resistance. The murder of the Baron Utrecht with his whole family is a clear proof. This expedition is a pledge of honor for them, a group of lower-level nobles, to save their lives.
However, they were also forced to betray their faith...
"Bishop Arbery is still fine, but we will have to regret it later."
It is really wishful thinking to want this group of lower-level nobles and Antwerp residents to fight for their lives. Rurik and Ragnar are also worried that if they really pull out a larger force, when the war breaks out, they will take the opportunity to mutiny collectively and "abandon the light and turn to the dark."
"Now that they are almost alone, they are easier to control. No one can blame them for not having any troops at hand."
With such a weak force, the Dutch Army of the Netherlands was established with great symbolic significance.
As the Earl of Nassau, Henry knew his position in the next action.
He has experienced too much in the short time in the past. After his whole outlook has been refreshed, he has no way to defend himself now that he is hanging out with the Normans. "Since I have committed a major crime, there is nothing to worry about.
Well. Since God won’t punish these Normans, I might as well kill them..."
Although he only had a few people at his disposal, the wealth of Antwerp and Ghent was known even to Henry Nassau, a small nobleman who originally lived in the interior of Europe.
The vast and sparsely populated Flanders region has its own highlights, especially Ghent and Antwerp. The soothing and swampy coastal areas are really suitable for grazing. Once it fogs up, it will be salt spray. The pastures in the huge area absorb salt.
The green grass is so wonderful that it would be a pity not to use it for grazing cattle and sheep.
A considerable amount of Frank's wool is produced in Flanders, with the southern region accounting for a large proportion of its production.
Henry Nassau decided to rob with the Norman army. He was not a Frisian himself and had no psychological burden for plundering. As for "God's punishment", let all this go to hell! The King of Ross wants to see the real deal. "Investment Certificate", I need to make a fortune.
For personal gain, Nassau decided to take action.
The first thing they arrived at was the ruins of Durist Port.
In autumn, the extensive estuary of the Rhine River is covered with reeds, and a large amount of the grass has withered and turned yellow, making the ruins here even more miserable.
The autumn wind is bleak, and the cold wind still feels cruel to people who are wearing thick clothes.
Rurik stood up and held on to the animal head on the bow of the ship: "Is this the Danish Durist?"
"Obviously," Nassau replied cautiously.
"It should be your first time here too."
"I will come here often from now on. I heard those knights say that any place where you can see large areas of ruins is Durist. Alas... it is a cursed place. I even feel like there are evil spirits howling."
"It's just the wind." Rurik shrugged, indeed feeling mentally unwell.
At that time, Ludwig led his cavalry to fight directly overland. After passing through Utrecht, they rushed along the north bank of the river. At that time, the old King Louis had not yet passed away, and Ludwig, who had a strong army and strong horses, was marching forward. Riester was flattened and the last fire burned him.
It turned out that the strong man and his family had returned to Denmark with Boss Horik, and those who stayed in Durist were only some ownerless pirates and even a small group of miscellaneous people. When Horik took the main personnel After the evacuation, the commercial value of this place has been lost.
It was because of Horik's act of arrogating the king in Denmark that the latter launched a crusade. The cavalry took the port lightly, and Ludwig issued an order to kill without distinction. After all, those who were killed were pirates, and kindness to pirates was a sign of mercy. The cruelty of the people. In this crusade, the Flanders Army, which was suffering from the harassment of pirates, also participated in it, but more so with an attitude of watching a show.
Want to fight the pirates? The Boguo army is not stupid, but the Boguo, who is caught in the cracks, has to fight both ways, sending troops and providing food and grass, and in the end it does not really participate in direct combat.
The swaths of shacks were reduced to a large number of blackened wooden piles, and only low earth walls were left of the Viking longhouses made of soil and wood. At that time, I could imagine its complete outline.
The trestle pier was deliberately damaged, with only some deep wooden piles standing abruptly in the waterway.
The weeds grew wildly and turned yellow. The arrival of the fleet disturbed some waterfowl. The ducks that wanted to fly south for the winter were disturbed and flew away.
Two longship friends, Rurik meets Ragnar.
"What do you think of this place?" Rurik asked.
"I feel like a ghost is crying." Ragna's mouth tightened, obviously he was not in a good mood.
"This place is Horik's former home base. If we occupy this place, it will be an even bigger victory."
"That's true, but... this place is really bad. I don't want to establish a foothold in a cursed place, so why don't we continue to drift downstream. It's closer to the ocean and easier for us to do in the future."
Feng shui is full of mysteries. If the feng shui of a place is not good, people in this environment will always feel psychologically uncomfortable. Rurik thinks about what Ragnar said, and it is true. Since many people say that this place is not good, then Just find another place.
This place soon came into Rurik's sight.
In other words, it is the mouth of the Rhine River itself.
When the Rhine entered the lowlands, it branched into more than ten tributaries of different sizes. Small tributaries can be waded through, while there are three large tributaries, namely the Lake River, the Maas (Old) River and the Southern Great Waterway.
.
The coalition forces took the Lake River channel in the north, where they reached the mouth of the sea.
The main fleet taking the ocean route had anchored at the mouth of the sea, and they were waiting for the king's army to arrive. Seeing the phantoms of a large number of longships, these ships hurriedly weighed anchor and rushed towards the river.
Attacking Antwerp to plunder and make a fortune can be said to be the last goal of the coalition forces' southward campaign.
If this plan is shelved due to weather conditions, the coalition forces will be able to find an area to turn into a "lease zone".
The coalition forces were looking for a suitable area to place shops and military bases, and Henry Nassau needed to find a good base for his Norman allies to support themselves in the future. The three parties were eager to find good land in Flanders, and they selected
An area with extremely flat terrain.
There is a small river like a water channel from the north. Perhaps this is the last tributary of the Rhine River, or it may be a small water channel branched off from the main water channel.
There is no doubt that this flat land is perfect for grazing or building a large number of houses.
As a result, the dragon-headed longboat headed straight for the tidal flat of the small river visible to the naked eye. The boat began to wash over the beach, and then got stuck in the mud and became unable to move.
Rurik exclaimed that he was puzzled that his good trick of beach landing in the past was not working anymore?
"Damn it! My ship can't move?!"
The long boat was stuck in the mud, and half of the boat was still in the river. I wanted to land smoothly in the nameless river with gentle water flow, and park all the traditional long boats on this river beach, but this was the result.
"Damn it. Brothers, some people can go down and push the boat back to the river."
As soon as Rurik gave the order, some capable soldiers seized the opportunity to make meritorious deeds. They took off their boots, pulled off their foot wraps, and jumped into the cold mud to push the boat.
In the meantime, the Danes with abstract raven emblems painted on white cloth also rushed to the beach with howls. As if they were unwilling to admit defeat to the Russians, they plunged headlong into the mud, and were unable to move one after another.
People laughed.
Someone shouted: "Are those Danes blind? Now they have become giants with clay feet."
"They must have thought they could easily go ashore and completely ignored our situation."
"Let's see how they get out."
But Rurik had no intention of watching the show here and continued to greet his men to push the boat.
More than a dozen soldiers jumped into the mud, and were immediately immobilized by the cold mud that was up to their crotches. Not to mention pushing the boat, they could not get out themselves, and the more they moved around, the deeper they got stuck.
A simple task of landing on the shore in the evening turned out to be so troublesome in life. Even if these brothers were not pulled up quickly, the cold mud would destroy their legs.
"Damn it! Stop moving. Others, follow me and pull them up."
After a lot of effort, the unlucky soldiers were dragged onto the boat one after another. Their lower bodies were covered in grass-smelling mud, and they were shivering from the cold, and their injured legs were as cold as ice.
Rurik also tried using a wide oar as a crowbar, and everyone worked together to help the ship escape. This had some effect until the big ship came to help.
Taking advantage of the wind, the sail cruiser zigzagged upstream of the waterway, anchored at a suitable location on the river, and then sent a boat with a cable to meet the king in the mud with the same momentum of rushing to the beach. The cable was tied to the stern of the ship, and finally
The big boat forcefully lifted the small boat out of the mud.
Following the same pattern, all the longships stuck in the mud were able to escape.
Although this was a farce, the Russians' behavior of using a large ship to tow a small boat still made the accompanying servants and the small nobles dumbfounded.
Originally, the fifteen feudal knights felt that the cargo ship that broke into Utrecht independently was the largest ship they had ever seen in their lives, and they also used the word "ark" to describe it.
Today, you can see big ships everywhere. All the big ships form a fleet, flying the exact same flag, and even the sails have the same pattern.
After much effort, Rurik finally landed.
They landed at the Lett Channel, the northernmost main channel of the Rhine River. The current here was relatively fast, and all the large ships anchored nearby. The rowing boats forced the beach again, and dropped cables to drive down wooden piles on the shore, thus firmly fixing all the ships.
After experiencing the ordeal in the evening, everyone stood on fairly solid coastal land.
"Now, I finally understand why Durist Port was not built here." Rurik sighed.
"Either the water flow is too turbulent, or there is too much mud." Ragnar thought of another thing, "It should be the dry season now, and the Rhine River is still a bit turbulent now. Wouldn't it be even worse in the high water season?"
"So that muddy river beach needs to be transformed. I also understand one thing."
"What's the matter?"
"It is not easy to enter the interior area along the Rhine River and reach the hometown of Nassau. If we lead the army to attack the Frankish hinterland by taking a shortcut by water, we will need to row for a long time. Although it is feasible, our soldiers will be very tired."
Ragnar didn't take it seriously at all, or he didn't understand what Rurik said at all. Instead, he asked a rather stupid question: "Is it possible to attack our biggest enemy, East Francia, by going upstream on this waterway?
That arrogant king, the king named Ludwig?”
"Exactly. A direct sneak attack on his military camp."
"Then do it immediately. We should kill him!" Ragnar's eyes were on fire, and his whole body was jumping with excitement.
Rurik was half a head taller than this old man, so he closed his eyes and was speechless for him.
He simply rejected it bluntly: "It's too late! If we really want to make a sneak attack, we have to do it when the weather is warm. Now I'm even worried about where the army will spend the winter. I don't even expect the army to return to its hometown. I will withdraw once Antwerp is over.
, I don’t want to be trapped by the frozen sea.”
"Just give up the opportunity?"
"I want to attack you secretly." Rurik shook his head deeply.
Unexpectedly, his anger actually seemed like an encouragement. "Can I try? Anyway, I was running around in Frank's territory back then, and they couldn't catch me at all. Hehe."
"I'm talking about the time in Bremen. If my squadron hadn't encountered you by chance, you would have been hacked to death by their cavalry, and there would be no need to burn Bremen."
"But I am indeed not dead, which means that Odin will not let me die. I live to take revenge! It was Ludwig's conspiracy that caused me to be almost exterminated. I will take revenge at any cost. Besides, my revenge is a good thing.
"
"What do you want?"
"Let's sit down and talk."
Some people are just pure murderers. Rurik felt that he had indeed made a mistake. He thought that Ragna would be able to settle down and do domestic affairs well after becoming king. Obviously, he was being sentimental.
Ragnar may not know what a king means at all, but this guy still wants to be a rogue. Indeed, many men think that a ruthless man who dares to go deep into the enemy camp and kill everyone is a real king. Such a king can at best be regarded as a chief, a brave man
A fierce Viking warrior, he was also a complete fool.
The King of Denmark is such a character, which is in line with Ross's interests.
However, Rurik also suddenly thought of a possibility. Perhaps he was worried that he did not have a high prestige among the Danish nobles. He directly attacked Frank and killed all parties. Only by showing real achievements could he force those noble lords to really
Surrender.
What's more, there are hundreds of die-hard fans hanging out with Ragnar now. Although these guys come from many tribes, they are really willing to continue fighting with their ruthless king.
Maybe they can still spend the winter in the hinterland of Frank? If they mess up Frank, it will also be beneficial to Ross.
The entire army spent the night warming themselves on the shore, and would sail again early tomorrow morning. If it had not been delayed for many reasons, the fleet would have rushed to the vicinity of Antwerp at full speed this evening.
Ragnar relied on the fire and continued to promote his "winter plunder" plan. He said that even if the Russian army would not cooperate, he had made up his mind. After plundering a wave of Antwerp, he would continue to go deep into the Rhine River.
"I would like to test the flow speed of this big river. If it is convenient for us to row and sail, you, Russia, must send troops to participate in our sneak attacks in the future."
Ragna was serious, but Rurik was very happy to see this kind of exploration, so he encouraged him: "I need your information, and we will rob together in the future. You...don't be trampled to death by their cavalry."
"Haha. Gods bless me, I am invincible. Now, let's give this place a name. We will build a town here in the future."
"Okay. What impressed me the most was the mud beside the river, which almost made it difficult for me to walk. To be fair, this open and flat grassland is really suitable for building a fortress." Rurik said.
"Is it called the Land of Mud?" After saying this, Ragnar laughed out loud at the name he chose casually.
"It's an appropriate name that makes my memory fresh. That's it...I don't care."
If a town grew up here, it would be named "rotnastadt" in Norse. The mud here is so vivid that in Frisian or Old Low German, it is described by the word "rotia".
The accompanying knights all mentioned this term.
Although the name was actually unpleasant, Rurik recognized it immediately.
Because a city should rise in this area and call it Rotterdam. The original meaning of Rotterdam is "a dam built on a muddy river".
Ross's shop will be built here, and Ross's power directly controls the mouth of the Rhine River.
Unfortunately, this area is an uninhabited coastal area, and history has given Ross an opportunity.
Rus will be the first settlers of Rotterdam, build a prosperous port town here, fly the flag with blue stripes on a white background, build a naval base, etc.
But the first thing she was given was the deer Tenstad.