Rise of Rurik - Chapter 767

[Chapter 768 Burning Bremen]

A cavalry regiment rests on the outskirts of the village of Gerstadov.

In recent days, this team has been busy clearing an intruding Norman fleet. The cavalry unit has gradually evolved from the initial fury when they got the news to the current anger and exhaustion.

The two cavalry rode back, dismounted, and hastily reported their findings to their officers.

“My lord, we have investigated. Not to mention the Normans, even the villagers…”

“What happened to the villagers?”

“Dead! A lot of people died, there were corpses everywhere. The attackers were so crazy that they even went after children.”

“Damn it!” A big hand slapped hard on the face.

The Earl of Bremen, Hunter, has returned to his territory. The village of Gustadov is his fief, and all the villagers are tax sources.

“Who killed them? Well, let me guess, the only ones who can do that are the Normans.”

The scout looked quite confused, and couldn’t help asking: “My lord, what should we do?”

“Wait a minute, has the wheat been harvested?”

“not at all.”

“Ah, this is the only one that pleases me among countless bad things. Tell the soldiers to follow me into the wheat field. I… want to go to the village to see for myself.”

Before the poor villagers had time to harvest the golden autumn rye, they were killed by the raiding Vikings.

This was not a big village head, and more than 200 members of the village died in the village.

The attacker was none other than Ragnar’s.

They were hunted all the way up the Weser when the first contact began.

They made some gains in Ningbao upstream, but they couldn’t break through the local wooden fortress, so they had to retreat.

They tried to plunder the village, but the reputation of the Normans spread prematurely, and all the villages who heard the news evacuated with their relatives.

Poor Gerstadov village, they are a little far from the Weser River, and the overall environment is closed.

The news of the Norman invasion is not very clear, so when the butcher’s knife came, it was a tragedy that they were completely wiped out without even a decent resistance.

The poultry and livestock raised by the villagers were looted, and part of the wheat was also harvested.

Ragnar’s troops did not intend to stay for a long time. This person had been avoiding direct encounters with the Frankish cavalry. No matter how reckless he was, he was not stupid enough to have a group of infantry with battle axes to confront the cavalry group.

He got a batch of key captures in this village. After guarding the corpses of villagers in a place overnight, he took his tribe and continued to row away. In the next battle, he will try to find some oil and water from the big city of Bremen. .

As for Ragnar being forced to retreat after being unable to search and encountering the Ross fleet by chance, this is something for another time.

However, the Earl of Bremen is here, and the cavalry regiment he leads is by no means a weak brigade.

Of course, there are nearly 200 cavalry infantry with poor riding skills, and more than 100 cavalry are veterans who follow him out of the city regularly to suppress bandits.

His detachment was of great service in the recently truce against Denmark, for it greatly enhanced Prince Ludwig’s cavalry.

Even though the brave Frankish army has gone through three hundred years of degeneration, making it difficult for the infantry to hold back even the Danes, who were of the same blood in the past, the cavalry is still the mainstay of the army.

All the cavalry from the headquarter and the lords gathered together, and the prince gathered 1,300 cavalry, but he just stood majesticly on the battlefield, and the Danish King Horik was terrified, and the result was naturally Denmark’s defeat.

The war with Denmark has not yet stopped, and bad news came from my hometown.

East Francia was already certain to win. After learning that a group of Danish Norman pirates were attacking in a roundabout way, the prince ordered the Earl of Bremen to immediately take his elite back to fight the fire.

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At the same time, he sent a fast horse with a letter, ordering the Earl of Flanders, who had just expelled the Norman forces, to defend his territory.

The Earl of Bremen finally encountered Ragnar, who was looting for the second time this year. The cavalry troop rushed to raid Ragnar’s shore camp. As a result, all the people who went ashore returned to the ship.

An army floats on the river, and a large army rides on the defeated and shouts on the bank.

The two sides shot a small amount of arrows at each other, but after all, their eyes were wide open.

The fleet went down the river, and it would be troublesome for the cavalry to catch up with them, and Bremen was to the south of the river, and the cavalry was all to the north of the river.

What made the Earl rejoice was that the nearest ferry was still upstream, which meant that they had to go through the ferry and turn back in order to continue chasing the drifting enemy, but they were doomed to waste some time.

There is no way, even horses cannot move fast for a long time, and each cavalry has only one horse. They must cherish horsepower, and they need food supplies from nearby villages.

In the village of Gerstadov, facing the stinking corpses all over the ground, the enraged count still ordered the soldiers to bury all the dead bodies.

The soldiers dug the god pit, dragged and carried the dead bodies with horrific wounds, and then sealed the earth and erected huge tombs.

The war horses gnawed wildly in the rye field, and even the riders seized the time to harvest some of them, and did shelling operations in surprise, and the rye was cooked and eaten as everyone’s ration.

Although this replenishment was within the Earl’s plan, the entire village was abandoned and he could no longer collect taxes.

He knew that he had to face a worse situation. The territory was ravaged by the Normans twice a year, and the villagers fled everywhere in panic. Means it is difficult to feed many soldiers.

Once the armament is relaxed and the Normans come to search again, how can there be enough soldiers to fight?

“Damn Normans, I must annihilate you!”

He swore that although he realized that his cavalry could not outrun the Norman fleet drifting along the river, even if they caught up, the cavalry would not be able to run wildly on the river and sea.

Even if they can’t catch up, it’s good for the army to withdraw to Bremen.

It was a fortified city with walls made of stone and wood. Relying on these, the Normans could not attack the city even if they had wings.

However……

Another morning, the cavalry corps marched along the river, and soon encountered another village named Akmusted.

There was no attack here, or it was attacked anyway.

How can a small village gather as many as five hundred people?

The wandering people were ashamed, seeing the cavalry holding the “Three Lions Banner”, as if they had seen an angel, they rushed forward with a cry.

Seeing that it was the noble Earl, the crying was even more heart-pounding.

“What happened?” The earl immediately heard the news.

“My lord! Normans! They…”

“What happened to them?! And you… are not villagers at all.”

“My lord! Bremen has been breached! The Normans broke through the city and killed everyone. We were all lucky enough to escape by jumping over the wall…”

“Jump over the wall? The city wall is so tall, why didn’t you fall to your death?”

The speaker calmed down for a moment, and then replied with a terrified face: “The people who fell to their deaths under the wall formed a slope, and we can only be safe by falling on the dead.”

Just after hearing this explanation, the Earl’s first feeling was that he had a nightmare in broad daylight. After further questioning, everyone was saying the same thing.

Suddenly, the earl’s heart tightened, and he fell off the horse, with one leg still hanging on the saddle.

The horse was startled, and neighed with a raised leg, causing the earl to severely strain his thigh.

He was helped up by his subordinates, beat his chest vigorously and endured the pain in his legs, and continued to hear about the situation of Bremen from the group of refugees.

In this way, some extremely delicate circumstances further surprised him.

There was a special group of Normans who came in a large ship. They were very neatly dressed, generally wearing white robes, and they waved a uniform banner with a slanted blue cross printed on a white background…

“Huh? Could it be, Ross?”

Originally, there were no Norman invaders, and my daily life was peaceful and even boring. Hunting and going out of the city to suppress bandits were very important pleasures.

The earl was very interested in Blue Fox’s meeting as an envoy of Ross. As for the concept of the Principality of Ross, he didn’t understand it. Considering that the other party was an envoy and was hostile to Denmark, he even proposed an alliance with Bremen. possibility.

His first understanding of the concept of Ross was not bad, but out of his arrogance as a nobleman and concern for his beliefs, he could not form an alliance with the Ross people in principle.

He felt that he didn’t say anything to death. The so-called military alliance can be thought of, and commercial transactions are possible, as long as the Russians obediently reach some harsh conditions, which shows that the nobles of Bremen have no conflict with the barbarism of foreign countries. people deal.

He listed ten kinds of taxes at that time, of course he said it casually, and finally determined that the city entry tax, customs duty, and business tax must be collected, and the right to choose is in the hands of the Ross people.

He felt that it was a great kindness to impose heavy taxes on foreign barbarians instead of killing them outright.

“Sure enough, you Russ are exactly the same as the Danes! The Normans are the Normans, hungry wolves who can’t get enough to eat!”

Injured by an accidental fall from a horse and a severe blow to his mind, the count had to stay in Axmusted Village for two days.

His cavalry regiment also needs to rest and reorganize, and the local refugees need to be appeased.

During the days of rest, the count didn’t just lie down. He ordered his subordinates to capture all the teenagers and adult men among the refugees. Whether they wanted to or not, these people had to take up arms and hang them if they dared to oppose them.

There were three merchants who lost all their goods and took their wallets with them.

The soldiers were also blinded by money, and the merchants complained that the lords did not pay heavy commercial taxes to protect the interests of the merchants, so they were hanged in public for the crime of resistance.

As for the merchant’s money being directly embezzled by the cavalry warriors…

With the act of killing chickens and monkeys, other men no longer complain, even if they do, they dare not speak out.

Insufficient weapons, they replaced them with sharpened wooden poles, and got the long-handled wooden forks used by the villagers to fork grass on the spot.

In the end, the people who managed to escape by jumping over the city wall were mainly young and middle-aged men. After they were forcibly recruited, the earl assembled an army of 700 men.

Bremen already ruined?

The earl still had one thought, the so-called his inner fort was well-defended, even if the barbarians entered the city to plunder, they could only sigh in embarrassment when facing the inner fort.

He wants to rescue his family members to protect internal funds, so that he can make a comeback.

A group of low-quality infantry conscripted slowed down the entire procession, and a dejected cavalry unit was unwilling to move forward quickly.

Fortunately, this village is not far from the city of Bremen, otherwise there would not be a large number of refugees fleeing in.

This group of people spent the night in the forest and lingered lazily until the morning, when some people began to notice the unusual weather in the direction of Bremen—thick smoke billowing.

“Oh no!”

Seeing the smoke and dust with his own eyes, the count immediately thought of a hundred bad things.

All the lazy and sound sleepers got up, and the earl, ignoring the so-called infantry who were sluggishly walking away, hurriedly ordered all the cavalry to get rid of the group of crane tails and charge towards Bremen!

They wanted to rush back to put out the fire, pumping their buttocks with the attitude that they could save some.

So in the eyes of those infantrymen, when will this matter not escape?

The figure of the cavalry was just covered by the forest, and the infantry scattered like birds and beasts.

Who is setting the fire?

It was the combined forces of Ross and Ragnar.

Originally, it was very dangerous for the coalition forces to stay in the city for a long time, but there were too many things that could be moved.

Arik wanted to evacuate early, but the large amount of wheat had to be transported by the soldiers of the Ross army for a whole day.

The amount of rye was initially estimated to be about 900,000 pounds. Sergeant Ross laughed and said that the so-called plunder was one million pounds, and all ten large ships in the fleet had to share some of the load. The amount of cargo should not be underestimated.

This is just the seizure of wheat. The Ross army and Ragnar’s people really managed to plunder the houses one by one.

Some people who hid were found out, but if they were found by Ragnar’s troops, they would end up dead, but they were captured by the Ross people, and the women among them could be cooks.

This is not because the Ross people have maintained the last trace of their humanity. It is actually because when the army expedition to Britain, they also captured a small group of women to be cooks.

The brothers are just following Frank’s example, and everyone still likes to eat hot food directly when they are exhausted after searching the property.

They all remained obedient to the promise that they would live by cooking the wheat honestly.

If he really wanted to kill these women, Arik couldn’t do it, and those Saarema Islanders under Spuyut wanted to drag them to live on the island.

A small group of captives was a windfall, and the Ross army was more concerned about the seizure of various metal utensils. Of course, a batch of wooden utensils, such as wooden chairs and wooden barrels, were taken away.

They did not find the wool warehouse, but intercepted a large amount of wool, and the seizure was enough to make people happy.

The coalition forces searched the city for two full days, and in the end it was the Ross army who occupied the earl’s mansion that looted the most wealth.

For example, the earl’s treasury was looted. Although there were not many silver and gold coins in it, half of them could fill the treasury, and the rest was divided among the brothers.

It was dawn, and the coalition soldiers had already retreated to camp outside the city.

The two days of searching and carrying made the brothers exhausted, all the work was worthwhile, and the people of Ragnar finally tasted the joy of a good harvest, because once the prince of Ross allowed him to live here, the property on hand was enough to make the tribe come back.

More than 200 men had a good rest, they got up and gathered under the blue sky, and soon there were dense lights.

Arik and Ragnar stood in front of them and gave a joint lecture, saying that everything that could be robbed had already been snatched away, and those that could not be moved could not be left to the Franks.

The so-called all this is part of the war. The Frankish Kingdom is the root of all evil. It destroyed Ross’s industry in Denmark, destroyed the free trade port Hedeby, destroyed the home of the Stonewall tribe and killed many people.

The so-called Frankish kingdom must get its due revenge. The Bremen army is a participant in the war. Burning the city is the most perfect revenge.

The coalition soldiers are in high spirits, and they need the most explosive catharsis, such as creating a purgatory in flames.

“Fire! Follow me!” Arik roared, beckoning his men to rush into the city.

Seeing this, Ragnar also greeted his subordinates to charge with torches.

Most of the houses in Bremen are single-story, and they all have thatched roofs, and the pure wooden structure is more flammable.

If there is any building that is the most perfect torch, it is the pure wooden St. Peter’s Basilica.

At first there were only small flames everywhere, and with the help of the weak north wind, the fire gradually became crazy.

When the sun rose, many places had already exploded into conflagration. The orange flames were facing the golden sun, and the gray-black smoke soared upwards, quickly forming a smoke column as high as 200 meters, which became larger and larger under the wind. appalling.

The wooden cathedral in Bremen was eventually destroyed in a fire, and the reconstructed church became pure stone.

Only this time and space, the arsonists became Normans.

The whole city became a big oven, and the arsonists all evacuated, for fear that they would become barbecues if they ran too late.

The coalition forces boarded the ships, and the fleet drifted calmly along the Weser River, only the “volcano” behind it continued to spew fire and thick smoke.

It was Arik’s suggestion to set fire to the city. After all, the first battle of his career was to kill all his opponents and burn down the town.

Ragnar felt that this was a good plan, and the raging fire met his need for revenge.

The two sides hit it off and created history at once.

It has long been recorded that the Vikings plundered Frankish villages and towns, and the Great Fire of Bremen in 836 must have been a highlight.

A large northern Frankish city fell into flames, and nearly ten thousand people died in this Viking raid. It will surely shake the entire kingdom.

[End of this Chapter]