Rise of Rurik - Chapter 997

[Chapter 999]

In principle, the Viking world did not have an established cavalry unit, but horses are not a rare thing here.

Consignment horses have always existed in the Danish world, as well as in Norwegian areas such as Bergen and Oslo.

The Ross people who once lived in the extreme north of the Viking world were an ethnic group that rarely saw horses. However, they were the first to have established cavalry.

The Russian cavalry was taught by the steppe Pechenegs, and it is reasonable to use steppe-style rogue tactics.

The basic tactics are “picking soft persimmons” to plunder the weak, plundering on horseback and landing by rowing boats. The Ross cavalry easily found the commonality among them, and quickly matured in this war.

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Those young fighters grew up rapidly during the One Year War, and the long battle did not make them tired of fighting.

On the contrary, they have witnessed too many novelty things, personally felt the vastness of the world, and made a fortune in the war.

Each cavalryman had some gold and silver in his pockets, and a great deal of grain in other pockets.

They plundered everywhere in the territory of East Franks like horse bandits, and this kind of thing was unimaginable for the Franks in the past.

Until the snowfall dispelled the cavalry’s intention to plunder further, Fisk, who had already made a fortune, decided to stop.

Because of the looting, the cavalry’s horse lineup swelled to more than three hundred horses.

The world is pale and cold after the snow, and the Frankish villagers prefer to stay at home.

Often a knight lord controls multiple villages as fiefs, and most of the villages are resident priests who maintain the order of production and life.

No matter how simple the monastery is, it is the core of the village.

Every villager family had to pay tithes to the monastery, either silver coins or the equivalent amount of food.

The monastery was almost the cash box of a village, and it also had a communal property as a granary.

Fisk’s group of Ross cavalry, who had been looting for several months, knew the structure of the Frankish village very well through actual combat, so the looting became extremely precise.

A team wearing white bear fur coats walked majestically on the deserted Roman road.

Looking around, there are no living people, and there are gray and white forests nearby.

It is definitely not because of their excessive plunder that the population has withered. It is true that the population of the whole of Europe in this era is low.

The East Francia area they plundered was also the least populated in the entire kingdom. Villages were mostly concentrated near large settlements, roads, and rivers. Finding villages was like hunting.

Their current actions are also lacking in hunting.

It was another successful raid, and Fisk’s gang was well-supplied after a massive snowfall.

They looted monasteries, executed villagers everywhere, and drove some into the icy forest to fend for themselves.

They didn’t think it was a problem at all, so they cooked wheat and fed horses in the village.

The bonfire was crackling, and they had snatched the hens that the villagers had kept in cages, and they were now roasting the chicken on skewers.

“The next step is to return to Cologne. If possible, we can loot again. Ah! I really want to go to the city and rob them of all their gold!” Fisk couldn’t hide his desire for wealth.

Immediately, someone yelled: “Then go sneak attack again.”

“However, with just this few people, we can’t fight into the city at all.”

“Continue to plunder the villages outside the city. At least, we will also rob a large amount of food and more horses.”

…

The brothers talked about how to rob, and no one ever considered whether there was any risk here.

In the final analysis, everyone is still thinking about the wealth that Cologne has in the legend. If it is possible to get a fortune, you should try it.

In the end, facing the booing from his brothers, Fisk stomped his feet fiercely: “Then let’s do it! No one can stop us!”

So they revised their course of action.

The cavalry, who had been returning with all their strength after the snow, decided to do their best to plunder gold and silver near Cologne, and the operation had already begun.

According to the inherent ten-man team formation, Fisk organized them into two teams to form up to five independent action teams.

He himself led the remaining 90 brothers to control a large amount of spoils, step by step as the main force to rob.

Facts have proved that when the cavalry rushes into the village to launch a looting operation, the opponent’s resistance will be quickly broken down by the well-trained cavalry, and the rest is killing.

To deal with a Frankish village does not require a lot of cavalry to act at the same time, twenty cavalry is enough.

The Kingdom of Ross never thought of expanding to the rule of the Diocese of Cologne, so Fisk’s new round of looting operations had no scruples.

The cavalry team went straight to Cologne in the open forest and snowfield. Fisk suddenly raised his arms and the team began to disintegrate.

Five special operations teams separated from Fisk’s main team, and each operation team has a small map of the area, even if it is extremely crudely drawn.

Each team has a raiding area, with the Ross flag, horns, and loud arrows as communication. They agreed to raid for five days, and then assembled grandly near the north gate of Cologne.

“Let’s all go! See you in five days!”

Riding hardy prairie horses, the Special Ops team made a beeline for their marauding area.

Their whereabouts have been seen by city patrols standing on the wooden and stone walls of Cologne, and the city immediately sounded the alarm.

Cologne is a center of faith, with many monasteries in the city and a pure wooden cathedral.

Countless copper bells rang and caused a loud noise, which was heard by all the Ross cavalry passing around the city.

Fisk, who is in charge of the home team, couldn’t help feeling a little worried, and someone asked, “Boss, will they send troops to challenge us?”

“Then kill them.” Fisk gritted his teeth fiercely, and now that all the special operations teams were dispatched, he had to start the looting.

“We continue to spread terror.”

Suddenly, a Pecheneg soldier in the team rode forward: “My lord, should we use some tactics?”

“Strategy?”

“Since our goal is gold, maybe we can capture a group of prisoners and use them to coerce the people in the city to hand over the gold.”

“Can this work? Do you think I didn’t think of it? Those wealthy people are not willing to pay ransom for ordinary farmers.” Fisk shook his head.

“Could it be that those monks will open their eyes and watch us kill all the captives in front of them? If they are indeed cruel.”

This Pecheneg warrior had a grim face. After all, he was the brothers’ riding instructor, and he was well versed in grassland warfare.

Fisk thought it made sense: “Alright, let’s go catch the prisoners, catch some more and show them to watch.”

Because the Pechenegs always like to use rogue tactics, it is precisely because of their poor weapons and equipment in the past, frontal combat is asking for trouble, and it is only natural to use various tactics that do not speak martial arts.

They are good at using a kind of grassland guerrilla warfare, often a few people and horses form a small team, taking advantage of dusk and night to sneak attack on the enemy’s camp, looting and killing, quickly retreating and never want to fight.

The so-called Ross special operations team is an expanded version of this tactic.

It’s not unusual, this rogue tactic is effective in terms of terrorizing and disrupting enemy military deployments.

Five action teams have found the target hiding in the woodland.

Those villagers had known that horse bandits were raging outside the city some time ago, and earlier there was news of the robbery by the Norman fleet.

After all, they are just legends. They are busy with farming, and generally they will never leave the village for a day’s journey in their entire lives. They generally don’t care about the outside world, and only listen to the bandit attack as a horror story.

The priests stationed in the village claimed that the attackers were the apostles of Satan, King Ludwig had organized a large army to crusade in the north, and Frank, who had the holy faith, would win a great victory.

May is a wonderful narrative of light triumphing over darkness, and the villagers continue to live their lives in peace.

The path to the open world was now completely deserted, and this was keenly noticed when the Ross cavalry moved.

Since there is a forest road, it must lead to a certain goal, and they start to act, and they immediately gain.

The five special operations teams didn’t know that Fisk had modified his tactics later. They implemented the previous request, bestowed death on the village, left the corpses, and took away as much food as possible and all the silver and copper coins they found.

The capture of prisoners by Fisk’s side started in full swing, except those who resolutely resisted were killed, and those who begged for mercy were tied up together.

He even captured three priests, elderly men with Mediterranean haircuts who cursed “the devil on the horse go back to hell.”

Fisk was not furious, but pulled out his sword, and rubbed the back of the sword against the scabbard to frighten him.

He threatened again in Latin: “I won’t kill you, just because I want to exchange you for ransom from Cologne. If you want to die, I don’t mind burning some people to vent your anger.”

The priests were stunned, they wondered if the devil’s apostle knew the holy language.

There was nothing to chat with the priest and other low-level priests. They were all tied up and only given a small amount of food to ensure that they did not dare to escape if they lacked physical strength.

Since it is no longer necessary to hide their identities, in fact the cavalry’s looting operation a month ago has exposed their identities.

Today’s looting is scored twice, and Fisk showed the Ross flag, bluntly saying that this is a glimpse of the whole war, and the Cologne area is a secondary battlefield, not the rear.

The priest and the villagers couldn’t figure out why ordinary villagers became victims of the nobles’ war. They just wanted to live in peace, and no one wanted to provoke them.

They are still innocent, completely unaware that the ruling core area of the Ross Kingdom has turned into a whole war machine, and they don’t know anything about the concept of “total war”.

They are indeed very simple. As the big bandit leader in their mind, Fiskush can only believe what he promised under the current situation.

So in just five days, Fisk’s main team was busy looting and capturing prisoners, and the five special operations teams were busy killing.

The last looting was to kill and burn easily distinguishable villages near the city of Cologne, and now it is combing out villages in remote forests.

The snow-covered forest suddenly burst into thick smoke, which was deliberately set on fire by the special operations team.

Smoke billowed everywhere near Cologne, as if a huge army was approaching.

For a while, rumors were flying all over the city. Some said that the cavalry exposed before were just the vanguard of the weird enemy, and some said that the large Norman fleet was already on its way.

The current situation is extremely unfavorable to Cologne. The city defense forces loyal to the archbishop have already gone north with the bishop. Although there are as many as 20,000 people in the city, theoretically at least 2,000 armed citizens can be organized.

But the clergy as a whole are opposed to any acts of war. It is precisely for this reason that the bishop only organized a patrol guard of a few hundred people to maintain public security. Now it is helpless to be forced to fight by King Ludwig.

In fact, there was no defense in the city, and the priests who stayed behind faced a large group of lambs who had no masters.

The monasteries all over the city were filled with people who knelt down and prayed to the gods.

But what is the use of praying, the miracle that people expected did not appear, and the strong city wall is still protecting everyone.

At this critical moment, the priests elected an acting archbishop to maintain normal affairs.

Hildwin, a loyal old man, has now taken over the Archbishop’s affairs, which is not what he hoped.

Facing a mess, the most urgent task now is to get the most basic weapons.

Therefore, the church calculated that at this difficult time, a sum of money must be taken from the treasury to purchase mercenaries.

The priests held a meeting, and what they discussed today was not a question of faith, but a purely city defense issue, which is rare.

The bald and beardless Archbishop seemed very poor, and his magnificent robes attested to his nobility.

As a political entity, the core of the Archdiocese of Cologne is in the city of Cologne. The priests in the city decide some affairs through parliamentary discussion, all of which are imitating the old Roman Senate.

Even if you are an archbishop, major issues of right and wrong must be discussed and determined by the senior priests, such as this plan to open the treasury to recruit mercenaries.

“The apostles of Satan are here again. They have exposed their banners. They are undoubtedly the Ross people. The Ross people are the Normans, exactly the same as the Normans who came by boat last time. Now the king leads the army in the north, and the archbishop is also in the north. Our Cologne is defenseless now, and we cannot fully rely on the protection of the city walls. We must open the treasury to recruit mercenaries, otherwise the Holy Land will be defiled. You… please express your opinions.” Hildwin appealed.

The priests have long held back their words.

“We spent money to recruit a group of mercenaries a month ago, but they were defeated. The enemy is very dangerous, and the money we spent is meaningless. Can you guarantee that we can guarantee safety by spending money this time?”

“Yes. As long as we keep the door shut everything will be fine.”

“But those villains are attacking villages outside the city. If we do nothing, the people will insist on us! Lord, we will also be punished for our blasphemy.”

They chattered and discussed, and the pious patrons of the gods had a major disagreement over the matter of spending money.

At least they are well-cultivated on the bright side, and noise and quarrels are not allowed in the holy cathedral. However, under the calm performance, these senior priests can hardly conceal their inner anxiety and fear.

Suddenly, a senior priest said: “Once upon a time, the Pope gave a sum of money to Attila, king of the Huns, and the arrogant Huns withdrew from Rome. If we also gave a sum of money to the barbarians who looted and killed outside the city, Did they just withdraw? Gold is what the barbarians need after all.”

“No! This is blasphemy!” Someone stood up suddenly, although the words were spoken softly, the anger was written on his face.

“This is also a way.” Someone echoed in agreement.

They started a new round of discussion, each talking about their own reasons, but nothing came out of the discussion.

However, when the next day dawned, the people standing at the top of the city continued to see the thick smoke from the performance forest, which was evidence that the village was burning. People in the city continued to panic, and some people began to question the inaction of the priests. More The people are still huddled in the monastery to pray, and the traveling merchants living in the city for the winter have already seized the time to forge iron tools to protect themselves.

So Fisk’s Ross cavalry set fire outside the city, robbed and captured prisoners, and the priests who were rulers in the city continued to discuss how to defend the city.

The acting bishop Hildwin was almost suffocated by the tremendous pressure. During the night, he knelt in front of the statue of Jesus and prayed, holding a new meeting with bloodshot eyes.

This time, he finally couldn’t stand the endless discussion.

“We still need to open the treasury and recruit some brave men with gold and silver. We will not let them go out of the city to fight the barbarians, but will protect our walls as a new patrol force. I plan to recruit three hundred men.”

As soon as the words fell, a group of black-robed senior priests with Mediterranean hairstyles wanted to “discuss” again, and Hildwin immediately stopped them.

“Stop discussing, words can’t convince each other. Let’s vote! The minority obeys the majority, our decision is success or failure, and everything is left to God. I still hope that you will support my proposition, so that we only need to insist on the victory of the king and the archbishop , the crisis in Cologne can be resolved. Remember! There are still 20,000 people in our city. For their safety, sometimes we have to pay some sacrifices. If such a proposition will cause us to suffer God’s punishment, I would rather go to hell Atonement.”

It is equivalent to saying that the acting archbishop Hildwin wants to abandon the people who are still stranded outside the city.

After all, horse bandits and pirates were already raging before the snowfall. Many villagers fled to Cologne with their families, and a large number of people fled to Aachen in the southwest. Those who did not escape put themselves in danger. They were attacked. It can be described as self-inflicted.

Hildwin would not speak so cruelly. All the so-called actions were to protect the remaining 20,000 people in Cologne.

Now, they’re starting to vote by show of hands…

[End of this Chapter]