Rise of Rurik

The Ouse River is not wide, and the well-prepared Rus army borrowed the ships of the Balmers to easily cross the river on a large scale.

Men in blue-striped shirts on a white background quickly formed a shield wall against their shields painted with chalk mud and indigo.

Arik stood in the army formation and roared at his subordinates: "Men! The idiots are going to attack our army formation! They are going to snatch our ship! Kill them all! Show no mercy!"

Everyone flashed their ferocious teeth, roared in unison, and their hands gripping the hilt of the sword became even tighter.

The large round shields that can prevent the entire torso are stacked on each other. It is very strange that the coat of arms of the Rus people is a big blue cross as long as the angle is rotated.

However, they are all warriors of Odin.

They held one shiny, springy steel sword after another. A group of warriors with steel-armed crossbows also deliberately lay in front of the formation, waiting for an opportunity to give the charging enemy a great gift.

And one after another, Rurik's flag-shooting fighters climbed the rope ladders and stood on the deck, and they took their places.

Short wooden bows and wooden wall crossbows are always ready to shoot at a wide angle.

What follows is a chaotic battle. The torsional slingshots on each ship's broadside have moved to the enemy's side, so that only the three ships of Avlora, Ostara, and Sperosville have assembled thirty. So did the four sailing destroyers, and Rurik easily assembled as many as fifty-four torsion slingshots, and even ten bull catapults.

The crazy output of so many heavy weapons will inevitably consume projectiles, which Rurik is no longer worried about.

After the city was broken, many cast iron projectiles that were fired before were found in the city, and the blood-stained projectiles would definitely be blood-stained again.

All this, Gafred, Earl of Roydis, who was ordered to attack, knew nothing of it.

This man suddenly changed from fear to boldness because of the huge desire for meritorious service.

With as many as two thousand men, he launched a surprise attack on the moored Ross fleet, not so much to destroy the ships as to capture them.

"If they lose their ships, they will be consumed to death in our kingdom."

However, Galfred had never fought directly with the Vikings, and he did not know that his impulsive attack was also what Ernred subconsciously hoped. Because an earl who can really quickly assemble an army of 2,000 people,

It is also his potential political opponent.

At the beginning of their slow walk, the kingdom warriors and earl squires in chain armor and orange clothes were in front, and the peasant warriors in ragged clothes and bare feet were in the back.

There are also many people holding flags to show that their troops are strong.

Galfred naturally saw the enemies who suddenly began to gather, and the orderliness of his team was truly awe-inspiring.

He took a deep breath, knowing that there was no way out now, and the entire marching team was an arrow from the string.

The distance is very close.

The real captain of the cavalry warned Gafred, "Lord Count, based on our experience last year. Let the horses charge as hard as they can, and they can break through their front. There is a gap in their front, and the army pours in from the gap. Once we enter the chaos, we will There is a chance to win."

"Ah? We're going to rush in? Aren't many people going to die?! Also, do you think we'll lose if we don't do this?"

"Lord Count, this is our only chance of winning."

The newly promoted cavalry captain is also a survivor after following the king's charge last year.

York is clearly occupied by barbarians, the people will be ravaged, and the life of the prince is uncertain. If the country is destroyed, it all ends in glory.

The captain of the cavalry had no intention of continuing to persuade him to say anything when he saw the count's complicated expression. At his call, the cavalry drew out their iron swords, kissed the hilt, and moved forward with their sharp swords.

Since the Frankish cavalry tactics were in vain, they had to resort to such tactics, even though they knew it was a generous death.

The cavalry spontaneously formed a cavalry wall, wrapped around the horse-riding Count, and they took the lead in attacking.

The latter were followed by two thousand infantrymen, who ended their slow walk and began their final charge.

"Can't think of these guys getting smarter?"

Rurik gritted his teeth and let the ready torsion slingshot fire ahead of schedule.

Yevro was taken aback. "My lord, what do you mean?"

"Idiot! Those cavalry are charging to the death! Don't let them break! Fire now."

"it is good……"

The Avlora was the first to launch, and other ships also launched attacks.

The first enemies were all those horse riders, spinning and flying cast iron bullets, slipping and jumping in the air in a beautiful parabolic fall, and a killing barrage composed of more than fifty torsion slingshots smashed towards the cavalry.

Of course, the cavalry was too fast.

The cavalry at the rear was smashed and turned on their backs, and the forward was still charging.

"Keep accumulating! Quick! Archers, stop them!" Rurik roared.

The only sound on the boat was the whizzing of arrows off the strings, and even the creaking and twisting of the torsion slingshot as it charged.

A large number of arrows fell from the sky, causing more than a dozen cavalry soldiers to fall to the ground.

There were still more than fifty cavalry that escaped the long-range attack of Ross because of their speed. They kept charging, and it seemed that they were only one step away from the shield wall of the Ross people.

Arik gritted his teeth, and the shield wall was as solid as a rock. How to deal with the cavalry's desperate impact They had already had experience in last year's battle, not to mention the men of the first flag team were the most capable veterans.

Anyone who is cowardly will live in shame and will be condemned.

No one thought of retreating, they were very confident that their line was solid.

Soldiers with halberds supported the front line, and the sharp spearheads kept moving forward.

The archers on the boat continued to output arrows quickly. At the critical moment, the steel-armed crossbow in ambush shot suddenly, and hurried back to the front line.

Before the battle, more than half of the cavalry had stopped due to various strikes.

The remaining cavalry really rushed to the shield wall of the Rus.

The powerful impact immediately caused a gap in the shield wall that should have entered the rock.

Arik was hit by the impact, the edge of the shield hit the helmet, and finally the corner of his mouth bleeds.

He got up and roared with his sword: "Quick! Kill the horses! Let them all die! If we win, we will eat horse meat!"

The sudden scene caused Rurik to cling to the side of the boat, and he was a little relieved to see his cousin get hit and to see him get up again.

"Damn it! You guys quickly re-solidify the front!"

Even a mere forty cavalry can break through the shield wall of the first flag team? Those war halberds hit the war horse immediately, greatly reducing the impact of the final cavalry. Although there are gaps, the casualty status of the Russ army is unknown. The Russ soldiers who fought back wantonly chopped the legs of horses, and the cavalry who lost their impact were the fat to be slaughtered.

The newly promoted cavalry captain and his brothers did not complete the effective slashing at all. They were counterattacked and killed by the Rus in the chaos, and their chainmail was smashed by sharp swords and halberds, and finally their blood was blurred. At least, they sacrificed their lives for their king and country. They can be called heroes.

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Of course Arik admired these madmen. As a tribute to the enemy, he felt that he had to kill more madly.

The blood of horses and people splattered the Ross warrior, and Arik was bathed in blood again.

Earl Galfred was struck by the arrow in the second round as early as the horse was hit by the arrow. After falling off the horse, his mind went blank. When he was conscious, he realized that his legs were being pinched by his horse.

He groaned in pain, and saw arrows coming at him again, thanks to the falling shield that saved him from being hit.

He looked sideways to see that the cavalry had been destroyed, and the brave captain of the cavalry might have died for his country.

In the end, the unfortunate earl was pulled out by a few cavalry soldiers whose horses died on the way to the charge. However, this violent pulling made him learn that his calf had just broken in the fall.

Galfred covered his deformed calf and wailed, and then ordered the helpless horseless cavalry, "Quick! I order you to carry me to the rear."

But even if their horses died, they were still cavalry, loyal to the king himself.

Several men looked at each other, turned into infantry with their iron swords, and continued to charge at the enemy together with the large army that had already rushed up.

More than a dozen wounded Rus fighters were pulled to the rear, and the impact did not kill any Rus, at least for now.

Just now, it scared a lot of soldiers, but in the next fight, the Ross army was not afraid.

The situation of the battle suddenly became Rurik's favorite again.

All the torsion slingshots slammed into the impacting enemy. At this moment, whether it was a kingdom soldier or a farmer, no matter how high or low, they were all hit by the projectile.

Cast iron projectiles, pebbles, javelins, arrows and crossbow bolts, all kinds of long-range weapons smashed over.

How did the peasants who were forced to fight in the army see this kind of battle?

Almost all of them were farmers in the villages near the Earl of Roydis, and most of them knew each other.

Relatives and friends were hit by strange weapons and fell to the ground with blood on their heads, and even blood splashed on themselves. They covered their heads and screamed, then spontaneously slowed down.

The army's attacking alignment was disjointed, with the largest number of armed farmers trying to fend off arrows or try to help wounded friends. However, their simple wooden shields can't stop ordinary arrows, but they can't stop cast iron projectiles!

More than 600 Kingdom soldiers finally rushed to the front of the Ross army formation, breaking through the blood-stained road of charge.

It was entirely because of York's disaster that their anger overwhelmed their fears, which gave them the chance to slash head-on with the Vikings.

However, the nightmare has only just begun.

Just after the battle, the chaotic charging Kingdom soldiers encountered a head-on attack from the first flag team of the Russ Army with a well-organized army.

The Ross warriors in the first row were half-bowed, with large round shields against their entire torso, and iron helmets with nose guards to protect their entire heads. The warriors only showed a pair of murderous eyes.

In general, the most traditional tactics of the Rus are the same as those of the other Vikings. Their shield wall is more of a defense, to induce the enemy to take the initiative to attack them. The shield wall is as immovable as a rock, and the soldiers guard the shield wall and kill anyone who comes close.

Those young warriors trained by Rurik were still a large group of cubs, and it was only when those men were tall and strong that the Russ would evolve into more mobile infantry tactics.

Even an immobile shield wall is wiser than the Northumbrians' rogue-like dashing with their swords.

This battle situation is what all the Rus people like to see the most, and their enemies continue to degenerate into a group of wild boars who can only go on a rampage.

The steel sword protruded from the gap in the shield, jabbing frantically forward.

The warriors holding the halberd in the rear, the axe under the spear head fell from the sky, like chiseling a can, giving the soldiers of the kingdom a three-dimensional blow.

If the Northumbrian warriors were strong enough, how could they sometimes honor Mercia as "Big Brother", or the King of Wessex as Holy King?

From Arik's point of view, he just thinks that these people are worse than Finland in the east.

At least the Finns still shoot arrows, these Northumbrian guys just charge.

"Haha, now the Finns are our servant warriors."

Naturally, some Ross warriors were injured in the new battle. Most of them suffered from skin injuries. The bleeding warriors were pulled to the rear to receive assault bandage treatment, and the new warriors supplemented their positions.

Those peasant warriors are not willing to charge at all, because under the attack of crazy arrows, they retreated across the board!

As a result, the soldiers of Galfred, Earl of Roydis were left to fight on the front line, so that the Russ had a huge advantage in the number of troops on both sides.

Nearly 100 soldiers have already died in the chaos, their blood stained the round shield of the Rus army.

The Ross Army roared neatly, and Arik's eyes were only murderous, like a mad bear.

The battle was clearly a one-sided victory for the Rus army.

"My lord, they seem very weak." Yevlo even said with a smile.

"Yes. The cavalry charge just now was stupid, but it was also smart and knew our weaknesses."

"But the wise are dead, and the cowards are left."

"Let Grund come with the reserves."

"My lord, is it still necessary?" Yevlo asked again.

"Let them rush, kill me like crazy, show no mercy."

After a short while, it was Grund's group who were ordered to shoot arrows. They put on their plate armor and slammed out of the shield wall of Ross with a double axe in hand.

Their current iron helmets are quite special. Not only are there iron guards on the forehead and sides, but even the front face is equipped with a rough mask that only exposes the eyes.

There is also a bear head hanging on the helmet, and the fangs on the upper jaw become a sun hat.

"Haha! We are fighting bears." Arik shouted excitedly. The rest of the Rus were revered.

A group of iron men entered the enemy's line, and although a large number of iron pieces hung on the chainmail, although it was heavy, this group of fat and strong reckless men managed it very well.

Their clothes are not overall plate armor, let alone tie armor. This body is a bit like fish scales, but it is not. It is not beautiful as a whole, and the defensive effect offsets the visual indecent.

Soldiers of the kingdom found that stabbing with a sword was useless, and slashing with an axe only created scratches.

The tall bear-headed iron men are Rurik's tactical reserve team, and they are also the kind of consumables that don't feel bad even if they die, as long as the armor can be used again. Grund, a Danish soldier, was on the surface of Rurik's re-use of emptiness and conspiracy.

Grund and his gang slashed in the enemy line, in addition to causing huge casualties, the more important thing was to completely destroy the enemy's confidence.

Earl Gafred watched eagerly that his people were throwing away their armor and fleeing for their lives. He endured the pain and appealed to his subordinates to save him, but everyone was running away. Run for your life, who cares about the immobile earl?

Arik went to hunt down, but when he heard his brother's cry, he began to restrain the army that he was going to kill.

There were still more than 100 people chasing them, and they further aggravated the chaos, and even hacked to death the moaning Gafred directly in the pursuit.

A generation of earl died like this, and in terms of dying without honor, even the Ross warrior who killed him just felt that he had hacked to death an enemy cavalry who should have died in battle, and he was just helping him with dignity.

Until the torsion slingshot ordered by Rurik to continue shooting began to kill the escapees, the Russ warriors who were chasing after saw that the other brothers were all behind, and stopped chasing.

"Russ people...you guys, you are still so strong. No! Rurik, is this the true strength of your army?" Ernred stared at his eyes, his eyes almost spewing out.

He had to admire his enemy, and then looked at the flag flying on the mast, the more he looked, the more terrified he felt.

However, they did not take advantage of the overall attack?

The peasant warriors who fled first were all pouring into the king's army, and by the way they brought back their fear, causing all the peasant warriors who watched the battle from a distance to panic and plan to escape.

The Bishop of York is glad that he followed the king to the border to fight the Mercians. If he was in York, he would have been swallowed by the barbarians.

But the situation is worse than he thought.

The bishop himself is not a fat man, at least his weight is not enough to crush a horse into a camel.

He rode his horse and approached the king, tremblingly said, "Your Majesty, our army..."

"I know. We can't win. Damn, my cavalry is over, I've lost."

"No! Your Majesty, if they're willing to accept it. We at least have a way to preserve it, just like the previous king."

"That's exactly what I want."

The soldiers of the kingdom who returned were frightened. They told the king that the bear-headed iron man was invulnerable in the chaotic army, and that the enemy's arrows were terrifying.

Ernred naturally wouldn't blame them, because Earl Roydis himself was killed.

The enemies are not ordinary Vikings, they are Rus, and the flying flag proves it all. That Rurik actually kept his promise and really brought troops here again this year.

They are clearly not chasing after them now, why isn't this giving themselves a chance to negotiate?

Ernred looked left and right, and asked the bishop again, "As you said, what am I going to talk to them."

"Send messengers. Who's right? You're letting me decide?"

"No. You go."

"Ah? Me? This is inappropriate." The bishop shivered and waved his hand to shirk.

"Don't worry, I'll go too." Ernred looked determined.

"Huh? That's even more inappropriate."

"It doesn't matter." Ernred looked ahead and said cautiously: "Don't worry about Mercia now. Our kingdom is about to be destroyed, and I can only minimize the loss. I know the commander of the Vikings, that person should would be willing to talk to us.”

"But Your Majesty, you shouldn't risk your life."

"Me? A king? My kingdom is about to collapse, what else can I bet on?" After that, Ernred tugged on the reins again, and his mount moved forward, followed by his many followers holding the king's flag. .

Seeing this, the bishop was helpless. He made a cross on his chest, then kissed the silver cross on his neck, and invited the little priest to marry the little priest with a big black cross. He dismounted and followed the king to the battlefield. A possibly unrealistic fantasy that the bishop also sprouted, if he could persuade the leader of the barbarians to convert to the sacred faith with one mouth, maybe the disaster would stop.

This scene was seen by the Rus army in the distance, and a large number of Balmers had gathered on the other side of the river and began to cross the river.

Magnut had come to the other side, looking at the corpses of the enemy on the ground, he complained to his son-in-law Rurik that he could not wait for him to fight, and then praised the strength of the Rus army.

Rurik didn't say much. It was naturally a good thing to show his allies extremely strong muscles, but it was a waste of the enemy's living strength.

He condoled his wounded soldiers on the battlefield under the boat, and ordered his subordinates to make up for the enemy's wounded with knives and death, and confiscated weapons and recovered arrows and arrows.

At this moment, a small group of people came from a distance, and the army was alerted.

Arik found his brother and pointed at the sword of blood dripping, "That's the new idiot who is not afraid of death. Let me kill them."

"No, brother. That must be the messenger, maybe begging us to stop the killing or something."

"Then execute the messenger."

"No, listen to what the messenger has to say. Don't worry, the messenger's words are not what you want. If I let you do it, they won't be able to escape."

"Okay." Arik smiled, shook off the blood from the sword, and inserted it into the scabbard.