Chapter 1,185 Blue Fox and Robert at the Rhine Estuary

A huge fleet of boats floated on the Rhine River, and the victorious army was rushing to another battlefield at high speed.

Most of the oars on each boat are retracted, leaving only a few to act as rudders to control the course.

The water of the Rhine River pushed them smoothly through Cologne. Passing by boat on this riverside with solid stone walls was really a unique feeling for Robert in his life.

As a high-ranking noble, even though he has lost his fiefdom, his status is still that of a noble.

It is foreseeable that after arriving at his father-in-law's territory, this man will definitely change his identity and continue to be cool.

Robert was able to sit on the Blue Fox's flagship and have a good chat with this fierce "Russian businessman" along the way.

On the right was Cologne. He noticed that there was an endless stream of people on the shore. Those who were crossing the river in small boats took an evasive attitude when they saw the huge fleet approaching.

He stared intently at the stone wall, then raised his head slightly to point at the huge cross specially erected on the top of the cathedral, the tallest building in the city.

"Do you want to stay here? Maybe you can talk to the bishop." The flirtatious blue fox sat lazily and asked casually with a smile.

"No need. I don't want the bishop to see my desolation." After saying that, Robert silently lowered his head. "Just keep sailing. Just do as planned."

"That's fine. Then maybe we can stay in Utrecht a little longer."

"There? Don't go there."

Robert's words were a little more panicked. Why?

"Why not go? Anyway, along the way, my army can also make some supplies locally." Blue Fox said deliberately.

"Want supplies? Go by yourself. Give my family some ships and let me go to your New Durist first..."

"It's Rotterstad. The ruins of Durist are history, we have new ones."

"It's the new stronghold of your Normans anyway." Robert shrugged: "I can rest there. After that, I want to go south, and I want to get to Tours as soon as possible. Even if it's a dangerous sea route."

"Sea route? Dangerous? Ridiculous." Blue Fox smiled and shook his head, "You can't leave first, and you can't leave without my permission. It doesn't matter if you don't go to Utrecht, your old vassal Henry Nassau is doing it there. Earl. A mere baron is now more powerful than you, and anyone with self-respect will be embarrassed. Don’t worry... I won’t let you be wronged."

"It seems you understand very well. That's good."

"However." Blue Fox added casually: "When you get to Rotterstad, you will see our army that is about to plunder Aachen. You will see some old friends. Of course, if you are willing to meet them."

Upon hearing this, Robert, who was barely calm, became nervous again. "You!" He raised his head and bared his teeth: "Are you entertaining me?"

"I don't dare. But those guys might say some sarcastic words. It's a fact that you were defeated two years ago. Are we allies now?"

"Allies? Maybe."

"At least we can do business. This also includes military transactions. If there is demand from Tour in the future, as long as we pay a suitable price, we Russians will send troops to help."

"Oh! Thank you so much." Robert emphasized his tone deliberately.

Robert had great expectations for his trip to Tours. His father-in-law was dead, the new Earl of Tours, his brother-in-law, was very young, and his wife was not young either.

The brother-in-law has a noble status but is too immature. Can he control the entire Loire (County of Tours)? If he feels that he is struggling, he, as his brother-in-law, will step up his efforts to help.

After some small talk, the army that had left after the victory at Nassau-Coblenz had passed through Cologne silently.

Archbishop Hardbold, who heard about the big event, stood on the high wall and silently watched with the other cardinals as the fleet of longships furled their sails and left in a very peaceful manner.

"Did they win in Koblenz?"

"I wonder how many more people they killed."

"They took thirty to forty people on each boat. Look at these boats. At least a thousand people left..."

The cardinals had different opinions, and the archbishop could not say anything about it. Information about the large-scale war taking place in Koblenz had been sent by messengers from Wallendaal Monastery. Within a few days of the letter being delivered, a huge Russian fleet rowed through the city arrogantly with astonishingly large oars.

There are some things that the elderly archbishop dare not even think about!

If you have an army of thousands of people, it will cost a lot of money and food just to feed them. Are the Russians gods? That blue fox can also summon an army of thousands of people with just a wave of his hand? No one is a fool. Many of the guys on those boats wear highly reflective helmets. Without helmets, they all have blond hair.

The well-informed archbishop estimated that there was an astonishing number of Norman troops entrenched at the mouth of the Rhine River. Are they going to fight a big war? Obviously this is the only reliable explanation.

Who are they going to fight? Obviously little Koblenz is not their main target.

Maybe……

Even though Blue Fox had stationed a small army in Cologne some time ago, no one revealed that the army was going to attack New Rome, the capital of the empire.

The bishop is not a fool, he will think about it himself, and he can estimate the general direction in which they will attack. Just like wolves always rush towards the sheepfold, because the position of the sheepfold is basically constant, and the most important thing is that there is more meat.

But what does this have to do with the Diocese of Cologne?

Unlike Archbishop Odegaard of Mainz, the Archbishop of Cologne had already extended an olive branch to Ludwig before the outbreak of the Civil War. This is not only because the entire Diocese of Cologne is on the right bank (north bank) of the Rhine River, but also because if Lothair is really made the only king of all Franks, will this king who values ​​​​power and power not plunder Cologne's wealth?

Although the Russians extorted five thousand pounds of silver coins very abominably, it was a one-time deal. Besides, now that the two sides are at peace, they can engage in mutually beneficial trade. The woolen weaving handicraft industry is Cologne's unique skill. With this business trick, the Cologne diocese will be able to make money back sooner or later.

How about Lothair? If he controls Cologne, it means that he controls the pockets of wealth. If this is the case, the good days of the priests will be over.

Cologne will definitely not have trouble with money. Secondly, the Diocese of Cologne is responsible to the Holy See. As for wars between big nobles, in principle there is no need to intervene.

But Cologne was deeply involved in the civil war, and its financial support for Ludwig was even more important than its military support. It seemed that they were neutral and allowed the troops of the Eastern Kingdom to enter and exit at will, but the troops of the Middle Kingdom were not allowed to cross the river. No matter that there are a large number of Norman armed forces entrenched at the mouth of the Rhine River, after all, Cologne also signed the peace treaty on Christmas Day a year ago. In principle, those Norman troops will ensure the defense and security of Cologne.

"Perhaps they felt that offense was the best defense. Normans were Normans."

Bishop Hardbold would never look down upon all the Normans, but was afraid of their might and had to show humility. This attitude was also the same when facing King Ludwig.

The Ross fleet had disappeared without a trace, and the bishop, who had been silent for a long time, heard other people talking too much.

He coughed twice to stop his chatter: "If we leave, the Normans will rob again, and the Lord will punish them."

Will the Lord punish them? So wouldn't the Cologne priests who had deep trade with the Normans be punished?

Who cares?

The priests are now more concerned about the "autumn wool" of the county of Flanders, when the Flanders will transport the second batch of wool of the year to Cologne through the longships of the Normans, especially the Rus. The current situation is that the wool from the entire Flanders wool-producing area is almost exclusively transported by water to its only destination, Cologne. In the entire trade activities, Cologne passively completes the monopoly of processing supplied materials.

Only Cologne had a huge handicraft population that could quickly consume Flanders wool, and made wool products and sold them to the entire Frankish world, and the future of wealth was bright.

In his heart, the archbishop hoped that the Norman army would carry out large-scale plundering of the Middle Kingdom this year, but on the surface, he did not make any indication, even if it was just a show, he showed that he did not understand the matter and did not want to know about it.

The Russian army along this route did not even want to dock to rest unless necessary. There were even villages and strongholds belonging to the Middle Kingdom on the left bank of the river. In theory, they were plunder targets.

The blue fox no longer wasted time and decided not to take the northern waterway after entering the estuary area. The so-called no longer took the Utrecht waterway.

The fleet took the widest waterway and arrived at Rotterstad smoothly and quickly.

At this time, a large number of boats can be seen with the naked eye on the extremely wide river. They are all long boats of various sizes. The bows and sterns of the boats are raised high and serve as anchorage ropes. The different sizes still prove that its identity.

In the lowlands on the right bank of the river, an incredible number of houses appear.

This place is certainly not Durist, and even if it is not a ruin it is not built on the largest river.

"Incredible." Robert stood up in surprise. He walked around on the long boat until he reached the bow. He held on to the rope and looked at the huge settlement on the shore. "It's like it suddenly appeared." A large area of ​​mushrooms. How did you do it? Shouldn’t this place be a wasteland?”

The blue fox couldn't help but feel deeply proud. He shouted loudly and his words were more exaggerated: "This is indeed your first time here. This is Rotterstad, a settlement larger than Durist. It must be here now Ten thousand people! We fish here, ship goods here. The army is stationed here, and we can fight whoever we want! This place belongs to no one."

"Doesn't belong to anyone? Doesn't it belong to you?!"

"Only part of it belongs to Ross! Look." Blue Fox specifically pointed to a small river in the estuary area: "That is a Danish settlement, and we Ross can't control them."

"Where is your power?"

"It's still a little further downstream, you'll see it soon."

Indeed, there are significant differences in appearance between the areas controlled by the Rus and the Danes. The Danish-controlled area was colonized by various tribes. They built houses in the same way as in their hometowns. Long houses with haystack roofs rose up in patches. The overall arrangement along the river looked chaotic, but the residents among them could be easily distinguished. Which tribe each other belongs to.

The Ross Kingdom is more organized, especially the Red Fox of the Gould family who was appointed as the governor of Rotterstad, specifically the governor of the local Ross-controlled area. He led the manpower to build regular buildings. It is better to arrange materials and take into account transportation. Shops are specially chosen to be closer to the sea. Although this kind of area is more susceptible to erosion by the tide, the convenient location makes the trouble of tide no longer a problem.

For this place, Rurik did not want it to become the territory of the kingdom. It would be enough for the kingdom to establish a base covering trade, shipping, and military.

Rurik thought so, but some nobles didn't want it to be just that.

Count Baudouin of Flanders did not trust all the Russians, but the young governor Red Fox Gouldson arranged by Rurik was worthy of trust and win over.

Baudouin could not wait to send his little daughter over. The girl was of course not under the age of marriage under Frankish law. It doesn’t matter!

Marriage was also a bargaining chip in commercial trade. Baudouin was afraid that the situation would change, so he took advantage of the victory of the wool monopoly trade that had just been completed and that a large number of Norman nobles were entrenched at the mouth of the Rhine River. He originally wanted to wait. He was well versed in the art of maneuvering according to the circumstances, and after some quick thinking, he sent his daughter to Rose's Shop at the mouth of the river.

Is the little fat red fox a vicious person? Absolutely not. This fat little golden retriever longs for merit and glory. His understanding of glory is to become a rich man, just like his deceased old father.

Living together is considered a marriage. When a woman is by his side, a man's heart is basically tied up.

So when the returning fleet docked, Red Fox, who came to greet him in person, decisively brought his fiancée with him. In Blue Fox's view, his fourth brother brought his sister-in-law to greet them.

Looking back at myself... I am still a "lonely wave".

There is no woman that Lan Hu is very obsessed with, and he doesn't care about marriage and childbirth. Anyway, my fiefdom in the north has a very large population, so I can just pick any woman to be my wife, even if there is a cross hanging on my chest.

The Ross Shop is located on a relatively high ground, some distance away from the pier, so that the sea tide will not erode the main part of the shop.

A small-scale city rose from the ground, with wooden walls surrounding a large number of regularly arranged buildings. Just outside the wooden walls are a considerable number of shantytowns. Although there are a large number of shanties and wooden houses, their arrangement is also very particular. The reserved horizontal and vertical roads are arranged in a grid pattern, and drainage ditches are dug on both sides of the roads. . The road was not reinforced, but the road surface was flattened as much as possible, which is the inevitable mud after heavy rain.

The victorious warriors disembarked one after another and returned to their temporary barracks.

The Russian-Danish coalition forces who were eager to go out had been waiting here for a long time. Blue Fox didn't know whether they were in a hurry or not, but there were a large number of wooden poles tied up with hemp ropes. On the ropes hung a large number of fish that had been cut open and held up. The fish fillets were being received. The sun-baked fish becomes dried, and this simply dried salted fish is a very common sailing dry food in the Viking world.

Robert originally thought that he would stay in a corrupt and powerful pirate den for a few days before heading to the civilized world of Tours, but he did not expect that the situation in the real area controlled by the Russians was very good.

What surprised him most was that the road was straight and black. It was made of coastal silt. There was no stench of feces or urine on the road. The houses on both sides of the road didn't look chaotic at all.

"What do you think?" Lan Hu, who had been chatting with his fourth brother for a while, deliberately approached the Robert family who was looking around. His smile was clearly showing off, and Robert had to admit that they had the capital to show off.

"I feel good. You actually call this a shop?"

"if not?"

"It should be a city."

"Yes, but not entirely. Let's go and enter the wall. That is the true nature of the shop. Haha, an indestructible fortress. I'm going to hold a noble dinner tonight."

Having said this, the blue fox did not forget to say more: "Robert, you are a great nobleman, and your wife is equally noble. Also here are the young King of Mercia, the Duke of Melalen of Ross, and my Earldom. The five barons, the prince of Denmark, the son of the earl of Finland..."

Blue Fox counted on his fingers. The large number of nobles proved the complexity of the huge army stationed here.

And this surprised Robert even more.

How many Norman troops were here? The number of elite soldiers who can directly participate in the battle is said to be 3,000, and including the next-level soldiers, the strength has exceeded 4,000. But in Robert's view, all northern fishermen turned into soldiers. This was the characteristic of the Normans.

He guessed that Blue Fox was being conservative in his words. After all, when the fleet landed, he saw a large number of longships of different sizes with their ends tilted up near the shore of the Ross-controlled area, and there were also a large number of ships floating on the sea.

There are even multiple giant ships that cannot be ignored.

Is the man with such huge military power just Joseph Blue Fox? King Rus himself is not here? Does Rurik really trust this round-faced guy?

Whatever, don’t think about it anymore.

Robert was very happy that the Blue Fox had returned and asked his subordinates to prepare a sumptuous dinner to clear the air. This dinner did not include Henry Nassau, the Earl of the Netherlands, so there was no serious embarrassment. But the dinner party is a "barbarian dinner" no matter how you think about it. It would be a shame to let the second lady of the Earl of Tours and his wife participate.

There was no reason for a high-ranking female noble to participate in such a banquet, which was likely to be very rough. Robert was only willing to go alone. He was already prepared to be ridiculed by a group of Norman nobles about his past defeats, so he patted his face and decided to participate.

Because he wanted to know how exactly these barbarians wanted to attack Aachen.