Chapter 1,390 The Latvian Army Is Coming

Remember [new] in one second! The last defenders were surrounded, and they were as helpless as lambs in a sheepfold waiting to be slaughtered.

Just when the army was about to drive out the enemy, Stekander gave an order: "Stop killing! Capture all the remaining people alive!"

Then, he yelled a few words of persuasion to surrender in Baltic dialect, hoping that all the Semigalians in the encirclement would surrender.

However, the opposite happened.

His leader had been killed, and the hateful Varangians in front of him stood on the corpse and continued to fight. If surrender means that the slave will get a fate worse than life, then it is better to fight hard and die happily even if it means death.

One of the warriors shouted: "Stupid Varangians! We will fight you till the end!"

Originally, a large number of Russian infantrymen had stopped shrinking the encirclement. These were basically Danish descendants from Riga. They did kill people on the battlefield and took a group of captives as slaves after the war. They had no intention of torture - smart people don't Animals willing to be put into service died summarily.

But the unyielding enemy chose to fight to the bitter end. Stekander begged for mercy and adjusted his order: "Destroy them all!"

The circular shield wall continued to compress, and the soldiers continued to advance on the corpse, as if a meat grinder was grinding a piece of meat into mince.

Fisk, who was not far away, had just dismounted. He gently stroked the mane of his horse and stared calmly at the final battlefield not far away.

"What a bunch of fools that brought disgrace to my victory."

The enemy seemed to number between 3,000 and 4,000 people. A huge monster gathered in one place and was eventually shot alive by the cavalry. This was the first time Fisk had seen such a battle scene in his life. He was afraid that he would not be able to describe the battle situation to anyone.

Even the Great King Rurik would not be able to believe it.

From Ross's point of view, the victory came too easily. Since it was always a non-contact battle, not a single horse was lost, and there were no casualties among the soldiers. If there is anything that can be called an injury, it is the arm that is sore from over-stretching the bow, and the slightly swollen thumb, index finger, ring finger of the right hand, and even the middle finger that is swollen for the first time.

The final battle seemed to have become "garbage time", and the Ross cavalry no longer joined in the cavalry's fun.

The horses that had worked so hard now needed to rest. The cavalrymen dismounted one after another and walked among the corpses with their swords in hand. The blood-soaked grass turned to mud, and the soldier's leather boots were immediately stained with dark red mud that smelled of rust.

After winning the battle, they could walk around the corpse-strewn battlefield to clean up the mess. The soldiers' joy of victory had turned into suddenness and calmness.

They stabbed the dying enemies with their swords with expressionless faces, and it became a kind of mercy to give the seriously injured enemy a satisfying last-ditch blow to end the pain.

They picked up the weapons left behind by the enemy, paying special attention to pulling out arrows that were like wheat.

The warrior checked the arrow shafts and arrow clusters carefully, and was delighted that these arrows could be used twice before putting them back into the quiver.

When the use of the bow came to an end, they removed the bow string and stuffed the curly bow back into the leather bow bag.

Cleaning up the battlefield is a chore, and dealing with the corpses here is even more troublesome.

The so-called arrogance is now reflected in Fisk's attitude towards his enemies. He didn't need prisoners of war, and there was no reason to capture prisoners to obtain confessions. In his opinion, the victory came so easily. The Russian army had already occupied Mezotne. If the other Semigalian tribes

Send troops to rescue, and Ross can fight again.

In any case, Rus captured Mezotne, thus removing the obstacle to subsequent armies advancing to the Courland coast.

At dusk, the battle ended completely.

The victorious Rus' army had captured the mound altar within Mezot.

Fisk rode his horse arrogantly through empty streets and alleys, commenting on the houses around him: "What kind of houses are these? Ross only had such a building twenty years ago, don't they want to change something?"

He cursed for a while, his mouth staggering with disdain on his face.

Even so, these buildings provided natural barracks for the army. Although they are simple, at least most of the houses have rough wooden floors, which is exactly the same as what they saw in the previous village. Obviously the locals have to beware of muddy situations caused by rising rivers.

The height of the Mezotenne mound is not even fifty meters, and it is also very gentle overall. The cavalrymen stood on the altar without any effort.

"Boss, is this their temple?" asked the accompanying flag officer.

"Apparently so. It's ours now."

"But……"

Fisk turned and glanced at his subordinates: "Do you have anything to say? Are you... a little nervous?"

"One thing. After all, this is their altar. If our iron hooves trample on it, will their gods be angry?"

"How is that possible?" Fisk laughed as he faced the setting sun, pointing his riding crop hand directly at the blood-red patch of land in the west: "We are Odin's warriors, and Odin responded to us with a blood-red sunset. Let's think about the future! We have indeed made great blood sacrifices to the gods."

"Boss, what shall we do next?

? "

"tired?"

"some."

"Take the enemy's houses as our military camp, and now act according to my requirements..." Fisk said at last.

It would have been better if night came later. Cleaning the battlefield wastes a lot of time, but it is very necessary. The biggest element supporting the strong combat power of the Ross Cavalry is arrows. Only by recovering more than 20,000 arrows fired can the three cavalry teams ensure that the next battle can be dealt with calmly.

What's more, Fisk, who was standing on the high ground, looked to the south. The river looked sparkling in the sunset, and there were scattered villages on both sides of the river.

There must be a large number of refugees fleeing towards the upper reaches of the river. Based on the confession of the leader Ostan, Semigalia is a tribal alliance that covers a large area, and Mezotne is an important part of it in the north, but its core is still there. upstream area.

Theoretically, as long as the King of Rus is willing and takes time to organize a large army to trace the source along the Lielupe River, he will surely conquer the entire Semigalia! But now these guys are luckily not on Rose's list of conquests.

It was impossible for Fisk to distinguish tonight's campsite for the Ross army, which was advancing by water, in a short time, and a large number of corpses were still thrown on the battlefield. Now that the climate was warm, those corpses would emit a stench as long as they were left on the scene for a whole day.

Corpse odor, this is the smelliest thing Fisk has ever known in his life. It not only makes people vomit, but if you are in such an environment, it is like a monster has cursed the entire environment, and living people will suffocate to death.

He ordered all the troops to find a good place to stay for the night, and gave a special order: "No matter what, after waking up tomorrow morning, the entire army will deal with the enemy's dead bodies! Do not throw the corpses into the river, and dig a big pit to cover it."

Bury! "

He also gave a further explanation: "Cowardly and defeated enemies do not deserve our courtesy! Mining and burial are just to ensure that the rotten meat slowly rots underground, rather than the stench that kills us."

The next day, when the morning sun swept across the land, the thick morning fog that filled the world quickly dissipated.

What was left of the main settlement in Mezot was occupied by Rus, where the warriors found some iron tools and some coins, and the lucky ones also found some jewelry.

If there was any most important capture, it was the capture by the troops of one of the enemy's granaries.

In fact, it was Stekander who led the people all the way to the special building area in this huge rural area. It was the only place with low walls for defense and was probably the residence of the local leader. As the search deepened, he determined the role of the building. It was undoubtedly the residence of the leader. The granary here also had a relatively sufficient surplus of grain, which just solved the problem of food and fodder for the army.

The soldiers collected some surplus grain from many residences. The locals naturally have the habit of stocking grain at home. Even if they enter the summer famine, they will make careful calculations for the remaining grain. As long as they calculate it correctly, there is no risk of food shortage, just wait for the oat harvest season to arrive. Food must be eaten carefully beforehand.

In the early morning, the iron pots and pottery urns that were put on and unloaded immediately began to boil the captured wheat.

The war horses were supposed to be eating green grass on the spot. Fisk continued to order, and each team arranged people to manage the horses and bring them all to the enemy's wheat fields to eat their green crops on the spot.

Ross had no intention of garrisoning in Mezotte, even if a large settlement was burned down with a fire, it would not matter. As for not setting fire to destroy it, it was just because of the timing.

Not yet arrived.

Fisk had already come up with the idea of ​​igniting a fire, and he planned to meet up with King Ross's subsequent cavalry and then head west. Don't leave Mezotne to the grinding Latvians. The level of those friendly forces seems to be about the same as that of the Semigalians. There is no Ross to send troops to guard, nor does Stekander send any troops. The Danish brothers were stationed there, but the Latvian militia alone could not hold this large settlement.

If Ross cannot be obtained, then the enemy cannot recover it. If it is burned down, it will definitely mean that the living space of the Semigalians is passively compressed to the south, which is beneficial to Riga.

Fisk's abacus was good, and his men also began the heavy work of disposing of the corpses.

He didn't want King Ross to see a pile of corpses when he arrived at Mezoten for inspection, but the king could see a special performance - Zhujing Temple.

Just as the Russian army had done at the Gniezdovo Altar of the Smolensk people, Fisk, as a witness, also followed the same method as Rurik's invention half a year ago.

The head of the deceased was chopped off with a long-handled Nordic forest ax, and the corpses were thrown into a newly dug trench-like pit that had begun to seep water. The corpses that had basically stopped rigor mortis gradually became layer upon layer, and the clothes and shoes worn by the deceased were thrown into the pit together.

If a Latvian had done this, he would have taken off the clothes of the deceased, washed the blood and then sewed them up and put them on himself.

The Ross cavalry has rich combat experience, and each family is also quite wealthy, especially the Slavic noble princes in the First Cavalry who are from boyar families, and they disdain to be a murderer.

Clothes follies.

It is considered decent to be buried with clothes on, but the bodies of the deceased are all in different places, which makes it no longer respectable. But for the leader Roquero and his family who all died in battle, everything became meaningless.

The sun was shining brightly in the morning, and the Russian army dealt with all this calmly. The severed heads were piled into small mounds, and finally covered with a layer of soil to build a view of the capital.

No one even carefully checked the soldiers wearing chain armor. The inferior chain armor was not as good as Ross's military discernment, and the corpse collectors were too lazy to take it off. In this way, Roquero was treated as an ordinary dead soldier. Until his body was buried in black mud, no one still knew the noble identity of the deceased - at least he was the leader of an army, so he would not end up hastily. .

But speaking of the Latvian army, when the Ross side completely occupied Mezotne, even the corpses scattered on the battlefield were buried. It took another two days before the roaring army finally arrived. Ross flag waving in Mezotne.

The commanders of each village gathered together. Their eyes were keen enough to notice the traces after the war. Since they could not see any obvious corpses, they couldn't help but become suspicious.

These commanders met with the commander-in-chief Fisk. They really wanted to be blamed for their procrastination, so they listened carefully to the bald general's teasing and ridicule.

Fisk boasted that he was merciful by not scolding them for being incredibly slow. Even if they were to advance on foot, they should be at most one day slower than Stekander's fleet. As a result, they were delayed for as long as three days.

So when the battle outside the city ended on the fourth day, the three thousand Latvian soldiers who were surrounded by darkness finally

Arriving at the battlefield where the day lilies were already cold. Even so, the food captured by the Ross army still had to be shared with these guys. After all, they had made an agreement long ago. Fisk thought twice and only pinched his nose to admit it, so he did not break the agreement.

However, it is not good to just criticize and ridicule blindly, so he took these Latvian leaders, a group of young people who were the sons of nobles, and their participation in the war was a gilded journey. In principle, Stekander is the high-ranking noble of this group of boyars' sons. The old guy may not be able to say some harsh words or do some outrageous things due to his face. Fisk, as the supreme commander of this battle, is also a passer-by. We took these young people to visit the huge tomb and the large number of weapons gathered together. We also specially sent people to peel off a corner of the Jingguan. Under the soil, there were all ferocious heads.

Not far away, Ross's horses were cruising and gnawing grass. The dismounted warriors chatted and laughed in small groups, and even played cards in the open air for fun, as well as playing pot-throwing games.

·The extremely large number of Latvian soldiers turned into bandits.

The large settlement of Mezotne has been cleaned up by the Russian army who arrived first in two days, and everything considered valuable has been taken away, but the remaining bottles and cans may still be attractive to some people. .

Their assessment of the dilly-dallying Latvian friendly forces was absolutely correct.

The Russian army is like a big shark that charges forward to kill, and the Latvian army is like a group of anata following the shark. They only need to eat some food scraps to be satisfied.

But the Latvian militia went further.

They took away bottles and cans that the Russians did not want, and even some rags were taken away. A large number of seized weapons, together with

They are said to be weapons, but they are all agricultural tools no matter how you look at them. After being picked over by the Ross Army, Stekander's Riga Army, and Little Spuut's Saaremaa Island Army, the remaining items were happily taken away by the Latvian Army, and it felt like they were picked up for nothing.

Now, Fisk stood in front of the Beijing Palace and personally lectured the young Latvian nobles: "You all just saw it! We chopped off three thousand heads, which means we killed three thousand enemies. Those are enemies with the same strength as you. It's just us." These more than a thousand people were wiped out without any casualties. You are a bunch of lazy guys, maybe I should call you cowards!"

The words were a bit harsh, and Fisk noticed the unconvinced look on the faces of these young people.

It seemed that someone was about to speak to refute, and he immediately scolded: "Any excuse is meaningless! Now that you have arrived, we will be stationed temporarily. We will give you a chance to fight in the future! In my opinion, the Semigalians will have If Mezotne falls, we will counterattack quickly, and you will have the opportunity to join the battle. When a new battle breaks out, I will order you to take the lead, and my cavalry will enter the battlefield at the right time! Listen!"

Fisk stamped his feet vigorously just to attract their attention: "The cavalry will temporarily supervise the battle! If your people dare to retreat during the fighting, the cavalry will kill these deserters."

These young people dare not question, let alone refuse.

However, the soldiers they brought did not know about Commander Fisk's special arrangements. The soldiers were taking advantage of the opportunity to plunder, and many of them looted excessively. They fled all the way to the upstream village, where they immediately met with the Semigalian who was also struggling. The first wave of human reinforcements clashed.

Ran

The two sides did not want to engage in an encounter in which they would never retreat. The reinforcements noticed that Mezotenne had been lost and continued to charge, fearing that they would be hitting a stone with an egg, so it was better to retreat temporarily.

It was a hasty encounter, and both sides suffered losses, but for the Semigalians, they just kidnapped a few Latvian militiamen who were busy looting, beat them severely, threw them into the boat and paddled them upstream.

This small-scale encounter forced the Latvian army to temporarily curb its arrogance. The main force of Ross was still on the mound inside Mezot, and the Latvians who ran too far had to retreat.

One advantage of the encounter was that the arrogant people calmed down and the Ross warriors became alert.

It didn't matter to Fisk that a few Latvians were captured. The enemy's counterattack was within his plan, but he didn't expect the counterattack to come so quickly. Based on his experience, it was just a small test of the enemy's reinforcements by the vanguard. I am afraid that the army will fight against Semigalia again in the next few days.

After a thousand words and the defeat of the small-scale encounter, the Latvian nobles became vigilant. Before the war broke out, everyone thought that they might be able to complete the gilded journey through this war safely. Now it seems that they really want to Fight directly.

The Ross Cavalry and Stekander's men could remain calm about the battle, and the mood of the Latvian army quickly changed from the joy of capturing the spoils to worries about the future war. They just received the reward for nothing and took away the spoils without fighting. It would be fair and necessary to charge forward in future battles.