Chapter 1525 The King’s Mercy
【The Rise of Rurik】 【】
"Some people said you rebelled, and in the end you became a prisoner of your friends." Fisk held the reins, his words full of sarcasm.
Gilbert didn't want to say anything anymore. He regained his freedom, sat on his horse and followed the Ross cavalry slowly towards the riverside camp.
"Why don't you speak?"
"What can I say now?" Gilbert actually still had a lot to say, "I wanted to persuade my people to withdraw from the battlefield, but someone overstepped my authority. This made all my plans fail."
"Who has such courage? Aren't you the son-in-law of the King of Frank?"
"Forget it, I don't recognize him as his son-in-law now." That's all, Gilbert fell silent again.
At this moment, Earl Eberhardt and Archbishop Hartga were both tied up with ropes. The defeated nobles lost all fighting spirit. Eberhardt did not want to resist and beg for death. He only asked Queen Ross to kill him when he really saw him. Before I die, I also want to talk to King Ross.
As for Archbishop Hatega, this old guy is not afraid of death. He lies on the horse and is full of reluctance. I was tied up like a fat pig waiting to be slaughtered, and I was afraid that I would be used as a sacrifice by the barbarians to the evil god. That kind of shame far exceeded the fear of death.
Hatega, willing to be a martyr.
Horse hooves trampled on the battlefield full of dead bodies. As far as the eye could see, there were dead people whose whole bodies were stained red with blood. A large number of war dead had arrows stuck in their bodies. Most of them had brown arrow feathers made from poultry flight feathers. They were densely packed, like a field that was in urgent need of harvesting. Wheat field.
Gilbert couldn't tell which ones were his own and which ones were Jülichgau's soldiers. Seeing the scene of dead bodies everywhere, in addition to sighing at the bravery of these militiamen who thought they were useless, he also felt that all his soldiers were wiped out. .
"Why would I have participated in the war if I had known this?" At this point, Gilbert gave up. He was almost alone. Fortunately, he made a rational choice-to form an alliance with the Russians.
The Ross cavalry has long been accustomed to the fact that the war has become like this. They did not dismount to collect the arrows for the time being, but followed the general closely and returned to the camp to report their duties.
They also saw teams after teams of warriors already cleaning the battlefield.
The soldiers carried the captured spears and other weapons and pushed the unarmed prisoners towards the camp. A closer look showed that there were quite a few prisoners of war.
As for the cavalry, there were only a handful of noble prisoners left in their hands. They continued to pursue and eventually killed all the fleeing enemies before the sun set.
But it was said that those warriors wearing the heaviest armor, after fighting the enemy bravely, sat down to rest on the battlefield one after another, and helped each other remove the blood-stained plate armor.
The soldiers were so hot that they were worried. Their whole bodies were steaming, and they looked extremely weird under the sunset.
The victory was easy and the losses of the Russian army were minimal.
As for the losses, less than twenty people were killed in the attack on the low wall. Those who died were so unlucky. The Franks' various sharp weapons stabbed their necks. The powerful force could penetrate the chain armor and face, which was the weakest point in the defense of the Russian soldiers.
Most of the injured were arm injuries, and a group of soldiers also suffered limited skin injuries from the enemy's arrows.
Ragnar's Danish soldiers faced off against the Frankish militia on the flanks across the roadblocks. Relying on these roadblocks and shield walls, the Danish troops held the line of defense. However, their armor was of poor quality and they suffered more than a hundred casualties in this decisive battle.
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【The Rise of Rurik】 【】
As for the Ross heavy-armored berserkers who suddenly came out, they were a group of steel war bears. When the battle was over, no one was killed. Most of the injuries were sprained feet and the like.
Biryurik was not surprised to play extreme exchanges, and such a battle once again shocked Ragnar and the other Danish warriors.
Soldiers were resting everywhere on the battlefield and in the camp. The air was filled with a strange smell of rust, and the river water turned bright red.
Rurik still stood on the low wall. This temporary and quickly assembled fence made the army occupied during the war. Only a few enemy soldiers completed the breakthrough. It can be said that this line of defense is indeed impregnable.
More and more dejected prisoners of war were driven into the camp. Rurik watched this scene with great satisfaction. Although the stop-kill order was issued late, he could see that the soldiers had captured at least 500 prisoners, which was considered a good capture.
Absolutely no good property can be obtained from this group of armed farmers. In the end, the most valuable thing is the militia itself.
As slaves, it is unrealistic for prisoners of war to travel thousands of miles to Ross' hometown. If one party can spend money to redeem it, that would be great. What Rurik hopes to get here is not money, but yellow wheat.
As long as the army has sufficient food supplies, the combat effectiveness of the soldiers will always be guaranteed, and they will have the opportunity to continue the war to plunder gold and silver.
Who would pay for these prisoners of war? Perhaps Henry of Nassau or Count Flanders, who moved to the Netherlands, would be happy to do so.
Rurik did not want to waste food on these prisoners.
The prisoners were escorted to the camp one after another, including some with minor injuries. They huddled together in despair, as if awaiting the fate of being killed.
Before selling the prisoners of war, at least make sure that they do not starve to death, and these prisoners also need to clean up the corpses on the ground in a short time.
With their backs to the setting sun, the cavalry returned to the Moselle River. Fisk immediately saw his king after dismounting.
"Your Majesty, we win easily." He said loudly while holding his helmet.
"Indeed, we won easily. The cavalry suffered no losses, right?" Rurik asked.
"Thanks to your command and the blessings of the gods. Our troops are not killed, and there may be some insignificant injuries."
Rurik nodded: "The casualties on the infantry side are also very light. Since you are here, go and rest first. The horses must be tired, so we all led them to the river to drink water, and then fed them with food to replenish their strength."
"I obey. But..."
"how?"
Fisk continued to smile: "I have brought you several noble prisoners of war."
"Noble prisoner of war? Could he be the commander of this Frankish army? Did you... capture the Archbishop of Liege?"
"Yes. If the old man didn't lie."
"Great." Rurik patted his thigh, and the laziness on his body disappeared. "Bring the prisoner here! I want to see this man."
"Besides that. There is also Gilbert and another nobleman who is probably an earl."
"Is there any unexpected gain? That nobleman might be Count Jülichgau."
Fisk thought for a while: "It seems to be the word. Yulichgau, it should be him."
A large number of soldiers were still cleaning the battlefield. Ragnar only left a small number of personnel to take care of his wounded soldiers and collect his own dead. He led his brothers into the battlefield to search for everything of value. Although they were mentally prepared, when they really found that the enemy was in poverty, the Danes had no choice but to curse and collect all the axes they found for their own use.
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【The Rise of Rurik】 【】
Rurik summoned some soldiers to serve as his guard of honor. He thought that the enemy commander had a higher status and it would be too embarrassing for the king if he summoned him wearing simple battle clothes.
He changed his clothes and put on his golden laurel wreath.
The guards also put huge feathers on their helmets and hung their cloaks on their shoulders. Rurik leaned against the tent, and the guards stood in two rows in front of him. Some flag captains and even centurions who came back first were also brought over to fill the scene. What is particularly noteworthy is that these soldiers participated in the final fight out of camp. Their clothes were stained with the enemy's blood. Now they did not need to be cleaned up, and they were left to fight in blood. Show others the way you look.
Rurik waited for a while, and under the push of a group of dismounted cavalry, Count Eberhard of Jülichgau, who had his hands tied, Archbishop Hatgar, and even a handful of lower-level priests who were lucky enough not to be killed, They experienced endless humiliation and fear, entered the low wall that could not be shaken by ten thousand soldiers, and saw the appearance of the Ross army camp.
Even, I saw the face of King Ross himself.
Unlike these two nobles, Gilbert was completely free. He could walk into the Ross camp swaggering and continue to walk to King Ross as a friend.
"You." Rurik glanced at the boy: "I asked you to lobby, and it seems that you have become a prisoner again. Your militia was defeated, don't blame me."
"Honorable King Ross, all of this may be fate. But..." Gilbert sighed deeply and whispered softly: "I see there are still many prisoners, and you seem unwilling to execute them immediately. Maybe one of them Someone who is as high as me, Ramon, maybe..."
"Let's discuss this later." Rurik waved his hand and turned to stare at the other two so-called noble prisoners who were already sitting there: "I want to interrogate them."
Rurik stepped forward and leaned down, like a giant bear looking at an ant, and announced his identity in Latin, which was a courtesy to the prisoners of war. Then ask again: "It's time to tell me your identities."
A bald-headed priest glared and rebuked: "You? Sure enough, you are King Rus? A monster from the north, a demon with unlimited killing!"
"Priest. You cursed me, do you want me to draw my sword and kill your mother immediately?"
"Come on! Kill me. Devil! I will never betray my beliefs."
"You." Rurik had already clenched the hilt of the sword, and his right hand slowly loosened his grip: "Your friend, the northern saint Eskil, is much smarter than you. I know your name even if you don't tell me. Hatega, Archbishop of Liège.”
"Now that you know that my noble me is in your hands, what do you want to do if you don't kill me immediately?"
Rurik shook his head. The first impression he had with Khatga was very bad, as if he was a bad old man who aspired to be a martyr. If he could simply be stabbed to death with a sword, this man's greatness would be fulfilled.
He looked at another dejected noble: "If the information is correct, are you Eberhart, Count Jülichgau?"
"It's me. King Ross." Eberhard raised his head: "Everyone knows your reputation. You were the villain who attacked Aachen, and you were the villain who murdered the imperial princess. You even desecrated Charlemagne's Holy Sepulchre.”
"Charlemagne's tomb? It's just that some bronze statues were moved from there. If you really want to destroy it, my people will destroy the sarcophagus. Your Charlemagne killed the northerners without mercy. Now it's just me who leads the northerners to fight back. That's all. This is all a long time ago." Rurik corrected him: "As for some people saying that I ordered the murder of your princess, this is nonsense."
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【The Rise of Rurik】 【】
Rurik clapped his hands, and a woman wearing a plain white robe slowly walked from the king's tent.
When she showed her face, a feeling of familiarity came over her.
"This is impossible. Princess Gisla is dead!" Archbishop Hatgar shouted.
"No. I'm not dead. Papa, I know you, just like you know me." The statement from the girl completely confirmed that Princess Gisla was alive, because she was the princess herself.
In the past days, Archbishop Hatega had a close relationship with the Archbishop of Aachen. He often entered Aachen and had some relations with the princesses.
Based on this relationship, Rurik boasted that he would take advantage of it when necessary. Gisla's work could come to an end. She was asked to stand aside. Rurik took a step forward and continued to look down: "Your princess is still pure. , but she has betrayed your faith. If you think of it this way, she is already unclean in a sense, almost as good as dead."
"What on earth is going on?" The Archbishop's outlook exploded. While listening to King Ross's description, he also noticed that the girl had opened her bangs with both hands to reveal the rune mark on her forehead.
"Archbishop! Thank you for your noble status. Do you want to be a martyr? I don't want to follow you. You are a noble prisoner of war. I heard that you are a determined war fighter. Your original intention is to destroy us in Nassau. power, just attack Ludwig's people again. I will not keep you, I will send you to the great Duke of Bavaria in the future. Ludwig will definitely pay a large sum of money to buy you noble .”
"You! How can I, the noble one, be treated as a commodity?"
"It's not up to you." Rurik told Count Jülichgau on the other side: "You will also have the same fate. I don't believe that the archbishop will command the army, so who is the commander of this army? You."
"That's me. The noble Count Jülichgau, my name is Eberhard. King Rus! I finally met you. You should be glad that I led 12,000 farmers. If they are real Franks Elite, you are the one who is tied up and sitting on the ground now." The count bared his teeth and looked ferocious, his words full of regret for the defeat and resignation.
"But your cavalry also launched an attack. They were very brave, but it was a pity that they did not fight well. Although I don't know where you got 10,000 farmers, they are all dead. Oh no, there may be hundreds or even a thousand alive. Come down. I am merciful and will not kill all these prisoners of war, but I will sell them into slavery."
"Is this considered mercy? If I were taken as a slave by you Normans, it would be better to kill them."
"You. You look very old. Why can't you be a favor to Gilbert and ally with us? After all, I accepted Ludwig's invitation and brought troops from a distant world to fight for him. You are loyal Lothair will be defeated, and all nobles should think about the future. As for you, my friend, you seem to be too old, too old to understand current affairs." Rurik felt this and couldn't help but talk more.
"Young man, your Latin is very good. It is a pity that the sacred language comes from the mouth of you barbarians, which is a blasphemy."
"Civilized? If I were really barbaric, your skull would be used as a wine glass. And me! Remembering that you are a high-ranking Frankish noble, I will neither kill you nor abuse you. You will be well-fed and under house arrest during your capture. In the end, Ludwig will decide your outcome. Unless, you declare betrayal to your Emperor Lothair."
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【The Rise of Rurik】 【】
"Never!" Eberhard yelled at the top of his lungs, then spat on Rurik's boots.
"You don't listen to my good words. It seems that you are really a loyal minister." That's all. Rurik ordered the two prisoners of war to be detained and the interrogation continued that night, but there was no need for him to participate in it.
The two of them were dragged away like animals, and Gilbert felt depressed as he watched their encounter. He could no longer care about those two people. Since many prisoners who were still alive were being sent back to the camp one after another, he continued to make suggestions to King Rus. "Your noble king, even now I still want to take back my La Menggao militia."
"But your lobbying was not successful, and you are not qualified."
"That was Count Urichgaard's obstruction. If I could actually see my army, the two thousand soldiers would have withdrawn from the battlefield. Besides, all my followers were killed by that guy in a sneak attack, and I became a prisoner again. It’s not that I don’t work hard.”
"What's the price?" Rurik asked with a straight face, refusing to listen to this man's excuses.
"this……"
"Forget it. Considering that you have provided a lot of key information, you are more happy to form an alliance with me. If you redeem a prisoner of war, you will give me 200 pounds of wheat. You can use next year's harvest to compensate for it and transport the grain to the Rhine. The city of our Rus at the mouth of the river.”
The weight of two hundred Roman pounds was close to the weight of an adult man. Gilbert thought quickly and estimated that paying such a price was completely within his acceptable range. Because a freed man cultivated an acre of land and paid the lord's tithe, which was equivalent to two hundred Roman pounds of grain.
In other words, King Rus is asking for one-year tax rights from himself.
So, who are the militiamen of Lamont High Territory? Gilbert now had the initiative. He stood before the growing number of prisoners and identified who they were.
Rurik asked him to immediately identify his own people, and Gilbert and his limited entourage tried to identify them everywhere. The prisoners of war who had just been escorted back were immediately identified as "La Mengau militiamen."
"If they really have 10,000 soldiers, your Ramengao militia only has 2,000. According to the proportion, it is impossible that all the prisoners here are yours." Rurik was so angry at this kid's thief, but he had already With a statement, all you can do is watch Gilbert claiming it everywhere.
Proportionally speaking, there are indeed very few real Ramongo militiamen who have survived. The loss of tithes for one year is acceptable. If the strong laborers who continue to cultivate the fields do not understand that they have become slaves of the Normans, they will be equivalent to losing 10% of their taxes every year. Suffering economic losses.
How many prisoners of war are there? More than a thousand militiamen have been captured, and this number is still rising.
Gilbert didn't want injured people who seemed to be unable to be saved. As for the able-bodied ones, even if the person spoke Frankish with a local accent in Luxembourg, he could still be considered a member of the La Mongao militia.
The noble cavalry belonging to him were killed on a large scale, and the entire Ramongao region was unintentionally about to undergo a personnel reshuffle. The sons of the knights would successively inherit the titles of their fathers who died in battle, but those high-status retainers would also die when they died. The militiamen were also removed from the knights. If the new generation of knights who inherited the title were not given some new people, I'm afraid they wouldn't be able to count on these knights to fight honestly for them in the future.
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【The Rise of Rurik】 【】
Gilbert had to consider these things from many aspects. Since King Ross gave him a chance to regain his strength, and King Ross had no intention of breaking his promise, he felt that he could get an advantage and was determined to bring all the prisoners of war back to his camp.
Such a merciful move is also good for the prisoners of war. At least Count Lamonteau is a true Frankish noble.
Early in the morning, a huge army attacked the Ross army camp by the river.
In the evening, the army was reduced to a dense mass of corpses outside the low wall, and as many as 1,500 prisoners of war sitting in a group inside the low wall.
This was the final number. The survival rate of the Frank army was only one-eighth. The identity of the survivors was also because King Ross made concessions to Gilbert, and the prisoners became friendly forces.
As a price, Gilbert will pay the ransom fee for all prisoners of war. Before the prisoners of war arrive at La Mongo, all the food and accommodation expenses of all personnel will be accounted for. The cost of transporting the prisoners by long ship must be calculated, and the shipping fee must also be calculated. Marked on Gilbert's head.
With a wave of his hand, Rurik doubled the ransom fee. Each prisoner of war would eventually need to pay a ransom fee of 600 pounds of grain, and 1,500 prisoners of war would need 900,000 pounds of wheat.
Even so, the burden placed on Gilbert's shoulders is not a fatal one, but it will just mean he has to grit his teeth and live a hard life in the next few years. But from a long-term perspective, with the mediation of the King of Ross, he and the Count of Flanders can negotiate smoothly. In order to obtain long-lost peace for himself, he is willing to make some concessions to Flanders.
The most important thing is that the intensity of the Normans' attacks on their own fiefdoms will be reduced. Even if there are attacks, they will be sneak attacks by uncontrolled small pirate groups. There will no longer be attacks like the Ross army's battle to destroy the country.
It's bitter to accept this, but that's better than a complete breakdown.
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