Rise of Rurik Chapter 939

The road to the south of the army is bound to pass through the port of Hazelby.

This prosperous port in the past truly reflects the glory of Godfrey, the great old lord of Denmark.

It is true that things are different. The leader of the alliance has long since passed away. After his death, the port became an absolute free port. Today, the green grass covers the scorched ruins, and there are some dark building wrecks left here, telling the horror of many years ago.

Facing the devastated Hezebi with traces of being smoothed out by nature, the viewer is not sad, but has some reminiscences of the past.

The army advancing by sea and land went all the way south, and along the way, a large number of Danish villages, as well as a small number of Saxon villages, announced a change of course due to their own safety.

Danish villages have announced that they have cancelled their faith in God and will return to the embrace of Odin. They honored Ragnar with a heavy hand as king, just as they had honored Horrick with a heavy hand before.

But this time is really different.

Because Horrick was a prisoner of war who had his tendons and hamstrings broken, he was a prisoner of Rurik, and even a prisoner of Ragnar. The key is that the existence of this prisoner is very useful.

With a rope around his neck and no fig leaf on his body, what was crawling and crawling like a shrunken wild boar was actually Horrick who rode a steed to force everyone to surrender a few years ago?

Is Horrick really the descendant of the Lord Godfrey? No one knows this.

But all the village lords knew that Horrick was definitely a blood relative of Harald Clark. The latter was voted to oust the leader of the alliance and expelled by force.

The reason for the expulsion is very simple - Harald Clark is forcing everyone to convert to God.

However, those lords and their tribal people who are unwilling to convert can only be exiled if they are not killed, such as fleeing to the nearest island of Zealand.

A large number of villages have chosen to convert and be baptized en masse in order to save their lives, and now they have jumped back. How can you prove that you have re-believed in Odin? They started killing young priests in the village, even if they were of the same race.

This kind of persecution against the clergy made Esquille grieved. For practical reasons, he suppressed his anger and sorrow, as if he was unaware of it all, only in silence and no one held his cross tightly. The wooden staff keeps praying.

The Dane villages are aware of the influence of Christ in their self-reliant territories. They destroy the monasteries, kill the priests, and then re-dig the stone statues representing gods such as Odin and Thor from the pits.

This scene really made Rurik laugh and cry.

He and Ragnar witnessed the restoration of stone statues, the reconstruction of the stone boat altar, and even the blood sacrifice of a young priest bound by ropes.

"What do you think?" Rurik asked Ragnar deliberately: "I think they have already made preparations."

"I think so too. What a bunch of smart people..."

Ragnar, of course, despises this kind of talent who adapts to the faith, but now he needs the support of these Danish compatriots.

At least they returned to Odin in action, and the rest was to force them to contribute a group of strong men to join the army as warriors.

The southern Danish villages on Jutland made such a decision, and the lords knew very well that Ragnar was a real ruthless man. Besides, the flamboyant Horrick has now degenerated into a pig and a dog, and he is an existence that can be led by Ragnar to walk the dog.

But seeing that this 30-year-old is the rich and powerful King Ragnar, he shouted at everyone: "Horrick is my prisoner, I was chosen by Odin, and I avenged Odin!"

The people respect the strong, and Ragnar is the real strong.

Of course, no one can ignore the stronger power behind the king-Russ King Rurik and the Rus army.

No one can ignore the Rus army, they are well-dressed and well-equipped, with infantry and cavalry, and a large fleet drifting offshore. Rurik, the legendary King of Rus, also showed his true body, and all the legends that circulated came true. The man who killed King Havgen turned out to be him!

Everyone knows that the Russ opened a shop in the old Hazelby port, and they also know that the fire in the port of Hazelby is largely related to Horrick sending troops to clean up the Ross shop. The result of that battle led directly to a commercial disaster in the Danish world, to the point that many merchants had to travel further south to do business in Schleswig.

Schleswig was originally a town shared by Danes and Saxons, and the natives of the town believed in Sirius, or rather, they believed that Sirius was not a star, but that it was "Asgard's shining point in the sky".

The ruined Hazelby ceased to exist, and Schleswig began to take its place economically, but it was firmly in Frankish control and became a frontier city.

Thanks to the conversion of many villages to God, converted Danes and Saxons are free to do business. At last they could safely import northern goods into the Frankish hinterland at the cost of heavy taxes.

And the Saxons who remained north of the Schleswig Wall were always guests to Denmark. With the arrival of Ludov, the descendant of Widukind, everything changed.

However, they welcomed their leader and learned of the war a year later. Because many Saxons converted to God, they abandoned their villages, dragged their families, drove cattle and sheep, stuffed poultry into cages, entered Schleswig and became the people under the Frankish rule, or in other words, they entered the Diguang people Thin Burger Earl.

Because they had converted to God, the Count of Hamburg, far from having no reason to conquer them, had to fulfill his duty of military protection.

It was precisely these people who escaped the Great Wall who talked about the war in the north, which suddenly caused tension in the north, and also caused the attitude of a large number of lower-level nobles of the Saxon ethnic group in the region to become hysterical.

As for those Saxon villages that didn't have time to leave, the villagers had already thought of countermeasures.

The so-called fake conversion day regretted it.

The army of the north has really appeared, but they are not demons. Lord Liudoff is not dead! Even if the fortress fell, Ludov was not dead. Not only that, Ludov also raised the flag of the Duchy of Saxony, he is the Duke of everyone! What's more, the northern saint Eskil was also in the army, and no one forced the Saxons to renounce God.

But the Saxons must make a decision - to recognize Ludov as the Duke of Saxony, and to go back to the line of the great hero Widukind, rebel against the rule of the Frankish kingdom, and restore the Duchy of Saxony.

Do the people have a choice? They have no objection at all. It was entirely because the Saxons who escaped the Great Wall used their actions to prove their opposition to the military conquest of the Frankish kingdom.

In the depths of everyone's heart, there is an anger that cannot be quelled for fifty years. Everyone can go to believe in God. Restoring the Duchy of Saxony and believing in God are not contradictory. They supported Ludov a year ago because he played the banner of "Grandson of Widukind", and now the hero has decided to return to his country and allied himself with the new king of Denmark and the king of Rus, and people fully support Ludov's rebellion , a Saxon army was born.

In just four days, the army arrived at the ruins of Hazelby from the battlefield of Aleb Fort.

The coalition camped here, and Ludov suddenly had more than a thousand Saxon warriors of very different ages and had been Vikingized. He was no longer a bare general. Even his own army did not even have any Frankish features.

Ragnar's troops had suffered more than 2,000 casualties in previous battles, and after the many lords of Zealand had arranged for some to return to the island, the army he could theoretically control had shrunk a lot. Thanks to the troops recruited as they traveled south, the army of the Kingdom of New Denmark still maintained an exaggerated size of 5,000 soldiers.

Naturally, the army with the most troops was Rurik's Rus Kingdom Army. To **** with the Swedes and the Gottarans! Rurik was too lazy to wait for the guys who looted and revenge in the northernmost part of Jutland. Those people were too small, and they were destined to do nothing.

At night, the bonfires near the ruins are as dense as stars.

The three kings gather at a campfire, nibble on freshly caught and oily grilled cod, and talk about the battle that follows.

"It is already clear that a large number of Danes have fled to the south," Ragnar said.

glutinous rice

"My Saxons are the clearest, and a large number of people have been evacuated. Another point, from what I know about the Count of Hamburg, his reinforcements will definitely go north. We will definitely encounter the Count of Hamburg's army, and fighting is almost inevitable." Liudov made his promises, but it aroused suspicion.

"Is the news reliable? How do you decide that the Earl of Hamburg will go north?" Rurik asked.

"No reason. Hahaha!" I saw Ludov laughing up to the sky, and the smile was mixed with helplessness: "When you start attacking my fortress, I will send someone out of the city to report the letter urgently. It is I who asked the Earl of Hamburg for help, I It's the party!"

Such an explanation is too dark and humorous. Rurik and Ragnar were silent for embarrassment, and then burst into laughter.

Laughing and laughing, Rurik put down the fish with disdain: "Count Burger, how many people can that Robert bring? He will be easily defeated by me. Do you believe it or not? Ludov, as long as I send cavalry, I will win easily. ."

Rurik's words were too provocative to say, and Liudov tried his best to cover up his embarrassment and dare not, and echoed: "My cavalry is much more than Robert, and I personally led the cavalry to defeat, your cavalry will naturally be able to Easy to win. Damn, how can you fight like this? You shoot arrows like crazy, cavalry shoot arrows wildly, attack my fortress like crazy, I've never seen this kind of tactic. No Frankish nobleman has seen this kind of tactic."

"This is my army." Rurik put on his arrogant face and said nothing.

"I only have one word to ask."

"Go ahead."

"The Count of Hamburg is not a pedantic person, and they have no subjective malice towards you. Besides, when I restore the Duchy of Saxony, Hamburg will be in my domain. Since we are allied now, we will soon reach Schleswig. If There is a battle, and I implore you to spare all Saxons. I will not pursue the past, I just hope that there will be no needless killings in the future."

Saying these words, Liudov's eyes turned more towards Ragnar.

"You... what are you looking at me for? Do you suspect that after I brought troops into your old Saxony area, I killed people everywhere?"

Liudov had a sullen face but a half-smile, and his eyes answered affirmatively.

"Whatever!" Ragnar shrugged. "My intention was to hit the Great Wall. I want Schleswig to be my Danish border town again. You want to revive the Duchy of Saxony. I support it, and then our two countries will use the Great Wall. For the boundary, so that we both agree."

Hearing such a promise, Liudov was very satisfied. For him, since he has raised the flag of treason and decided to risk his life to revive the Principality of Saxony, he is sure that he has seized the God-given opportunity of the Frankish Civil War.

Therefore, it is very important for Ragnar's Danish army to continue to go south, but he only uses the army to help himself to restore the country, and defeat Ludwig's crusade when necessary. I really don't want the heroes of the north to loot Saxony. It is a country where people are withered.

It was at this campfire that Ross, Denmark and Saxony reached a new verbal agreement.

The so-called do not do unnecessary killing, the killing is aimed at the rebels, and any nobles and commoners who recognize Ludov as the Duke of Saxony will have their right to life protected.

As for property rights? That's another story.

There is a price to pay for helping oneself to restore the country. Liudov has to pay the rations of foreign troops such as Rus and Denmark, as well as the benefits that can be delayed.

As a result, the new target has been determined, and the army must quickly capture the town of Schleswig.

The coalition has no time to dawdle and march!

The army has been heading south along the eastern coastline of Jutland. Theoretically, the route to the south is the shortest. The reality is that there are a lot of forest areas in the middle of the peninsula, which is a disaster for the army of tens of thousands of people.

The coalition forces actually spared some detours, and the ruins of Hezeby where they are currently located are at the mouth of the Shilei Bay. This bay is deep and narrow, it is not like a bay, but more like a wide river channel inside.

The deep Schlei Bay is a bay formed by ice erosion, and there is a glacial lake at the deepest point. The lake is the seawater of the Baltic Sea due to the backflow of the seawater. It is a natural shelter from the wind, but the biggest problem is that the waterway from the inside to the outside is too narrow and long. When the business of Haizebi at the mouth of the sea is booming, there is no business in the deepest part of the bay. value. Today, merchants seek safe trading points, and spare towns are springing up as new commodity distribution centers.

The deepest lagoon in the bay is the town of Schleswig, where the eastern end of the Great Wall is located. An inappropriate analogy, the current stage of the town of Schleswig and Shanhaiguan have the same meaning.

Still in Hazelby, after the three kings had a small meeting, Rurik changed his hands and called his subordinates for another meeting.

"Bald" Fisk is called a star. According to the new task set by the king, everyone feels that the king attaches great importance to him.

Under the attention of many generals and nobles, the young Fisk simply issued a military order.

"I will lead the cavalry to take down Schleswig! I will kill those who resist, and spare my life for those who surrender. I will win! If I fail, I will... commit suicide to apologize!"

"You talk too hard." Rurik smiled and tapped the old man on the shoulder, "You can't die. However, I really entrust you with the task of taking down Schleswig, and you will represent our Ross independence. Glory."

The current Arik does not have any title, on the surface his true identity is only the captain of the first flag team. Everyone uses the Frankish kingdom as a reference. Rurik is the king of Russ, so people like Arik must be at least a duke-level figure. He was assigned a special attack mission.

From the ruins of Hazelby to the town of Schleswig, follow the coastline of the harbor to the hinterland in the southwest direction. It only takes 30 kilometers to get there.

Such a distance only takes half a day for a cavalry unit to advance quickly, and even faster for a ship.

The Ross cavalry selected 200 cavalry, and Fisk led his troops to advance rapidly as a land force.

Ragnar led a squadron. Considering the convenience of the landing battle, except for a sailing destroyer as a necessary support, the rest of the ships were traditional leading warships.

The leading warship can best demonstrate the Viking characteristics, and it is the most suitable landing craft in this time and space for beach landing operations.

Without further ado, on the morning of the next day, a special unit of the chaotic army was quickly formed.

The cavalry marched lightly after breakfast. They carried a lot of arrows, but only one ration. This was the land troops.

The sea troops were led by Arik, who had experienced many battles. The soldiers under his command were more than 400 veterans of the First Banner, accompanied by a Saxon army with 20 leading warships. The sea detachment had a total of thirty-six oars, and the ships flew the flag of Rus, and I saw one ship also flying the flag of the so-called Duchy of Saxony.

Liudov couldn't fully believe Rurik and Ragnar's promise not to kill indiscriminately. He couldn't express his distrust in person, so he might as well take a boat and go south quickly, with his own people to supervise, to force his allies to be thirsty but not timid. . Of course, he also had to arrive at Schleswig as soon as possible. Although he might not meet the Earl of Hamburg there, he would definitely meet the local baron.

As a man, you have to leave a way out. Although he raised the flag of treason, Ludoff's purpose is actually to restore the duchy of Saxony. As for whether this duchy is an independent grand duchy, or a grand vassal of the Frankish kingdom in the form of a duchy, as long as things don't matter. Do it absolutely, there are still many opportunities for negotiation in the future.

He hoped to directly capture the local baron, this nobleman is a Frankish, leaving his life as a bargaining chip in future negotiations. However, many of the local garrison in Schleswig are Saxons. As a self-reliant duke, Liudov cannot really expect some militiamen recruited from the north to incorporate the garrison of Schleswig under his command~www.mtlnovel.com ~ This is a shortcut to expanding strength. More than that? The Count of Hamburg also had to hand over the army, especially all the Saxon soldiers in it.

It is said that the Frankish forces in the entire Saxony region must ebb, and the Saxon soldiers who immigrated to the Frankish nobles and trained must be subordinate to the real king.

For Liudov, he hopes to start from Schleswig as the real starting point for his own recovery, or at least the starting point for regaining his hands on regular soldiers.

The coalition forces that advance by sea and land are dispatched! The only thing missing in this coalition is the Danes. This is also a favor for Ragnar to sell his allies. Because the war has reached this point, Ragnar really needs to make some long-term diplomatic plans for the future Kingdom of Denmark. He killed so many people in the siege of the Aleb Fortress that he really had to consider the feelings of another party to the war, now an ally Ludov.

Liudov's words are very clear, as long as he helps him recover his country, the past grievances will be forgotten.

Ragnar deliberately slowed down the advance, and together with Rurik himself, he moved forward slowly as if playing a game. At this speed, he would not be able to reach Schleswig until the next day.

By then, the vanguard army had already captured the town.

Chapter end