Rise of Rurik

The wolves broke into the sheep pen, and what followed was a brutal killing.

The wall did not protect the Frankish soldiers inside the wall. It became a deadly cage. After all resistance collapsed, the Russian army that rushed in immediately began to kill without mercy.

"We will leave no one alive! No prisoners! Don't listen to anything they say. No mercy."

No one felt inappropriate with such a cruel order, and no one had any sympathy.

This was caused by the accompanying Saxon warriors, who vented their usually squeezed anger and slashed their axes at the enemies who lacked resistance.

The whole of Bremen was like a meat factory, no one was laughing, and there were shouts of death everywhere.

Red streams gush out from the city and continue to pour into the half-frozen Weser River...

Finally, the killing came to an end.

There were a large number of blood-red soldiers standing in the city, and the Ross-Saxony coalition's sneak attack was a great success.

There is no sense of beauty after victory here. The victorious warriors were panting and sat next to the mutilated and hideous corpses to rest their spirits.

They were all people who were used to seeing death, and some who had rested properly stood up one after another to look for their favorite trophies on the battlefield.

Iron weapons and armor were all looted by everyone, and many of the sterling silver crosses hanging around the necks of the slain were also taken away by the victors.

Some large wooden houses attracted everyone's attention. When the simple fence door was opened, more than a dozen enemy soldiers who had been hiding suddenly came out carrying sharp weapons. They clearly launched a sneak attack on the Russian army with a desperate attitude, and were all killed afterwards.

The soldier immediately reported the matter to Arik, who was organizing manpower to clean up the battlefield.

"What? The enemy is still alive and dares to sneak attack? Are they dead?"

"They were all killed. Moreover, they were guarding some good things." The soldier said cautiously.

"It can't be gold, right?"

"It's food. It's all food!"

There is actually a granary in this city? Arik was secretly happy. Even if he couldn't seize a large amount of gold and silver, wouldn't it be nice to seize grain and cook it and feast on it.

"Let's go! Brothers." He ordered his men to suspend the work of collecting iron tools. "Let's go over there and take a look."

When Arik arrived at the target location with dozens of brothers, many people had gathered outside the wooden house here.

The injured who had been plotted by the enemy were temporarily placed outside. At this moment, Ross and Saxon soldiers came out one after another carrying sacks. It is obvious that they are carrying a heavy sack individually, and after taking it away, it is theirs.

Arik then grabbed the arm of a brother who was busy studying and smiling and said, "Hey, what did you grab?"

"Ah! Brother Arik, you will never imagine what is inside here. There is food everywhere, enough for us brothers to eat until next summer. Haha, as you can see, the similar-style houses here are all granaries."

"They are all granaries?" Arik regretted ordering to kill all the enemies. No! There should be some left alive.

He asked casually to the left and right: "You all go and see the dead bodies. There are still prisoners who are breathing."

Someone asked with a face full of embarrassment: "Boss, look at the corpses everywhere, are there really any left alive?"

"At least find one. I... just want to know if this is the enemy's granary, and how much food can be eaten by the enemy's army."

Not to mention, there were indeed enemies who pretended to be dead and were exposed during the Russian inspection, and there were even more than one.

The Rus warriors stabbed the limbs of each corpse with their swords, pretending that the deceased could not bear the pain and suddenly twisted. Normally, for this kind of situation, one would stab the victim with another sword to kill him. Since the boss has the order, the brothers should act more cautiously.

There were also five wounded who pretended to be dead and were escorted, and those Saxon friends who knew some Frankish acted as translators.

Arik promised that the prisoners would not be killed if they told the truth. In order to survive, these people decisively explained their situation.

Of course, this false and submissive plan ends here, and the prisoner's head is moved...

"It's incredible! There are actually 25,000 enemies? Half of their food is in Bremen? Haha, all their food becomes mine."

Arik showed a long-lost happiness, and immediately gathered people to start plundering the food and other found supplies.

The enemy army insisted on fighting in the freezing cold. If the food they carried ran out, they would definitely send people back to Bremen to get it. For a moment, Arik felt that his brother Rurik was really capable of calculations. The first task of the squadron to attack Bremen was to destroy the communication lines, among which the task of destroying bridges had the highest priority.

What Rurik could not have calculated was that the enemy had rebuilt Bremen without hesitation, nor could he have calculated that a large amount of real food was placed here.

After all, the sneak attack was a great success. The destruction of the bridge and the emptying of the granary were a double blow to the enemy.

Carrying food has also become a part of the battle. Of course, Arik feels that this move is not as satisfying as fighting face to face. After all, it can weaken the enemy's strength.

Similarly, first ensure that the brothers who fight in sneak attacks have their stomachs filled.

Compared to the Russians, the accompanying Saxons were extremely greedy. They searched for iron tools and armor, and worked extremely hard when carrying food. The reason for their move was simple - the Saxon women and children left behind were still half-starved.

When asked about the reason, the soft part in Arik's heart was touched.

More than a dozen Saxons knelt down and begged him. They hoped that the "War Chief" would classify the entire granary as an exclusive trophy for the Saxon friendly forces. They didn't just want to enrich themselves, they just wanted to transport it back to Hamburg and distribute it to hungry women and children.

They kept claiming that they were "war chiefs" and accompanied them in the charge in previous battles.

How comfortable does it feel to be supported by others? Arik agreed.

You can't treat the guy who worked hard for you badly, not to mention that the captured grain weighs a lot, so it's understandable to share some of it with the friendly forces. The Russian soldiers also plundered too much and it didn't matter if they just patronized their own meals.

After all, the first task of the army was to destroy the bridge. Arik thought that he had specially distributed a batch of trophies to the Saxon friendly troops. Wouldn't it be natural for him to send them to do some big things?

For the time being, no one cared about the corpses all over the city. The warm corpses quickly lost their temperature in the extremely cold state. All the armor and clothing were stripped off the corpse, and then the lining and clothing were plundered by the Saxons.

Due to the backwardness of cloth weaving technology in this era, there were no spinning wheels in Western and Northern Europe, and women still sat on the ground and weaved cloth with simple tools. Weaving a piece of cloth takes a long time, and any piece of cloth is very expensive. This leads to many families that have too many children, and the younger children are often miserable and naked.

This condition is extremely rare in the Nordic world, where children who do not have adequate warm clothing will die quickly, and leather is widely used in Nordic countries and is always tightly wrapped.

The lack of clothing occurs more often in the south. The Saxon living area has this problem. In the so-called powerful Frankish Kingdom, a large number of Frankish families also have this problem.

Arik regretted the Saxon's crazy behavior of stripping off the dead people's clothes, but he could understand it. After all, the Russians lived a hard life twenty years ago and were not particular about their clothes. In order to ensure that they would not freeze to death, they could tolerate looking slovenly in their clothes.

Times have changed and now the Russian army has entrenched itself on the banks of the Weser River. In Bremen, they set up a group of large iron pots that they brought with them to boil river water and cook wheat.

The dead bodies had turned gray, and then a layer of hoarfrost developed. Before rigor mortis had begun, the dead were massively frozen into lumps of ice.

It became troublesome to order the soldiers to throw the dead bodies directly into the Weser River, so Arik simply refused to collect the bodies of the dead.

He ate slowly boiled oats in two large wooden bowls, and walked around the Saxon camp after dark.

Seeing this great benevolent man personally visiting, the converted Saxon warriors didn't care that Arik was a believer in Odin. Out of gratitude and respect for the brave man, they all came over to greet him with smiles.

"You are all in good spirits! You all seem to be eating well!"

The Saxons responded with enthusiastic cheers.

"Then eat more, and eat more salt! When tomorrow dawns, you will demolish the damn bridge again, and finally burn the city of Bremen to the ground!"

They responded to Arik's request with even more enthusiastic cheers, and the next day, the third bridge-destroying operation began.

But for Arik, the outline of the city of Bremen was vaguely visible at first.

St. Peter's Basilica, count's mansion, wooden fortress, thick walls, and row upon row of residential buildings. Since all these buildings were mainly made of wood, they were reduced to powder after the fire.

When the Frankish army rebuilt Bremen, they could only rebuild a large military camp on the foundation. It is far-fetched to say that it is a city.

If you set fire to the city again, you will destroy it for the second time. I guess you will be nicknamed "Arson Hero" again.

No! Not domineering enough.

While the Saxons were frantically cutting off the cables binding the bridge deck timbers with axes, the Ross army began to create a "manpower assembly line" under the command of Grund to transport the burlap bags filled with food back. Big ship.

Thanks to the large number of ships in this battle, it was no problem to empty the food and other loot.

It was just a short day, and no one cared about the thousands of dead bodies that were still frozen. The dead and wounded of the Ross-Saxony Army had already been dealt with.

The harsh winter can ensure that our war dead will not rot. More than 20 people died. They will be transported back to Hamburg. Rurik will decide whether to be cremated or buried on the spot.

There were as many as a hundred injured. Some of them suffered external and internal injuries during the battle, and many sprained their arms and sprained their feet while searching for loot.

During this day, the city of Bremen was searched, and a thousand soldiers were panting while carrying the loot.

They were tired but happy. At night, everyone gathered by the river to eat wheat to replenish their strength. Then they set up simple tents on the clean snow, spread out leather mats and fell asleep.

The bridge being repaired was very wide. As the cables were cut, new ropes were tied to the timbers supported on the piers of the pile of corpses, and the paddle boats pulled them into the river.

The slow-flowing Weser River gradually drifts the driftwood to the sea, or directly runs aground on the ice-covered shore.

It is still feasible to rebuild the bridge, but it will only take a lot of time in warm periods, and it will only be more difficult in the current snow-filled environment.

It was a new dawn again, and I thought that the city was full of dead bodies and that the whole city was no longer of use. There was no need for a cursed and uncomfortable city to exist.

The early morning bonfire had not yet burned out, and with a large amount of food in hand, the army was extravagant enough to add river water and new firewood to continue cooking wheat.

After the army was full, they lazily worked on the ground.

It's time to end this mission.

Arik intended to set fire to the city and then walk away, just like he had done many years ago.

Unexpectedly, the well-informed veteran Grund insisted on changing Arik's decision.

"Why did you stop me? My brothers and I don't want to stay in this cold place anymore."

"Why leave now? Of course the enemy's army cannot defeat the king. When the enemy's food is finished, they will definitely return to Bremen to get food. Don't you...don't want to intercept and kill their people again? Or are you just seeing what's in front of you? Victory, do you want to give up as soon as things get better?"

One sentence woke up Arik: "Of course I want greater credit."

Arik, Grund and Jevlo discussed and reached a consensus that the army's method of burning the city would not change, but it would be too unlucky to stay outside the city full of charred corpses. The army moved to the other side of the river and camped, waiting for new enemies to appear.

A group of Russians picked up the burning wooden branches and, led by Arik, once again walked into the city full of icy corpses.

"Franks! Thank me! I will cremate you."

However, this is the most extreme insult to be inflicted on the deceased.

Even when Arik asked the Saxons to hold burning sticks to set fire, they were so strange that they all shied away. After asking about the situation, Arik was no longer reluctant.

Catholicism strictly prohibits cremation, which is an act of desecration of the dignity of the deceased. If the person who performs this act is a Christian, he has committed a great sin, and his soul will fall into hell and be roasted by endless fire.

But the Russian army is all Vikings, and cremation of dead Vikings is a particular tradition. Of course, cremation and water burial have their own particularities, and each tribe has its own customs. As an old Russian, cremation is performed more often.

In this way, the burning of the city and the cremation became pure venting of anger. Aric then roared: "Just curse me! This is the anger of the northerners! You Franks should not come here!"

However, there were a large number of Sorbian slave soldiers among the dead. It was impossible for these guys who died in confusion to correct what Arik said was wrong.

"Let's start! Brothers! I was the first to burn Bremen, and today's burning is the second time. I am Aric the Burner! Let's do it!"

Arson began and gradually the city burned.

The flames made Arik's cheeks heat up, and the hot air made his beard tremble.

He stood outside the city with a group of brothers, squinting as he watched the fire become more and more intense.

The flames melted the snow, and water vapor rose into the sky, cooling rapidly in the sky and turning into a white plume of smoke. This smoke column was mixed with a large amount of debris and even parts of the deceased.

The smoke column gradually turned gray-white, which looked extremely dazzling in the clear air.

Ludwig had no idea that his Bremen stronghold had been burned, all the wounded soldiers had been killed, and all supplies had been looted.

But he was not completely unaware of the disaster in Bremen, so some people who fled immediately risked their lives to escape north. Such people could only rely on eating snow to replenish water, and relying on their strong willpower, they finally met Ludwig. The defeated soldiers will make peace.

Already suffering a defeat, the main force of the Frank army was forced to retreat tactically and camped in an uninhabited Frank village in the forest. Ludwig still had a considerable number of soldiers, but the army was frightened and had to rest before fighting again.

However, people who escaped from the south began to spread terrible news-the Bremen stronghold was lost!

"This is absolutely impossible!" Ludwig refused to believe it. The poor messenger almost died of anger to report the news, but was executed for disturbing the morale of the army.

It was a fact that disturbed the morale of the army. Ludwig encountered a new big trouble, and he was also shaken. If Bremen was really attacked by the Normans, more cavalry would need to be sent to investigate.

He must join forces with the Archbishop of Cologne to stabilize the mood of the army, organize defenses at the current camp in the forest, and discuss countermeasures for the next action.

It cannot be denied that if the war is to continue, the lines of communication in the Roman Viaduct must be secure. If Bremen is lost, it must be recaptured, because the bridge over the Weser River is the only way for the army's supply line to pass.

For a moment, Ludwig felt that he was trapped in a dilemma, and he deeply realized that his insistence on going his own way was asking for trouble.

The situation can't be worse!

So, he organized three hundred light cavalry and began to run non-stop towards the south. His mission was to confirm the situation in Bremen and not to risk fighting with the enemy.