Chapter 1547 You Are All Subjects of the County of Gothenburg

Latest website:

The victory over the city of Metz was inevitable. The victory was easy and the casualties of the coalition forces were negligible. This was something that no one had thought of before the war.

The five hundred iron men who were the first to break into the formation had no casualties. However, after removing the chest plate armor, you can see mottled stripes. The zinc plating done by the fire gold plating method was not reliable, and a lot of the thin zinc oxide was scratched off. It was so bad. It also proved that plate armor proved its unparalleled capabilities.

The rest of the troops suffered slight losses, with only a few soldiers being hit in the neck by burrs during the fight with the defenders.

As for Ascard, he led the Seventh Flag Troop in a big melee at the entrance of the Earl's mansion. The wall formed by stacking round shields kept squeezing, forcing the defenders to gradually become unable to even swing their swords. The Ross steel sword thrust out from the gap in the shield, and the sword specialized in assassination directly penetrated the enemy's ordinary chain mail.

Although such an attack will cause some damage to the sword, continuing to use it is not a problem. As long as the tip of the sword remains sharp, it can continue to be used.

In the moment when the stone wall collapsed and opened a large gap, everything that could support the faith of the two thousand defenders was gone.

The Ross coalition faced the mentally depressed with overwhelming momentum, and used an astonishing number of armored warriors to target the weak civilian brigade. Now it has begun to comprehensively clean up the battlefield.

On a new day, Verica, Blackbird, and other priestesses arrived at Metz City by boat. It was already the afternoon of that day.

In the morning, after a night of terror, the captive people woke up to the fragrance, and new firewood was added to the smoldering bonfire. The conquerors poured new wheat into the large pottery urns and iron pots, and sprinkled a large amount of wheat on each urn and pot. Salt, gradually boil the wheat into a thick salty porridge.

The County of Metz was short of salt in peaceful days. No salt was produced in the area, so the salt it needed was imported from Burgundy, and Little Burgundy imported it from Provence.

Because it is on the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, where the salt content is very high, Provence has had a tradition of boiling salt since ancient times.

Then Conrad, Count of Auxerre, hopes to take back the rule of Provence, which was separated from Great Burgundy. On the one hand, he hopes to restore the status of Burgundy, but also to obtain this low-cost salt boiling area. He made a fortune selling salt.

War in recent years has caused Burgundy's salt exports to the north to plummet, because salt merchants also had to take the Roman road to reach Metz. Burgundy blocked the highway and levied large tariffs on these salt merchants. Since Auxerre-Burgundy has already planned to launch an expedition, among all the materials raised, salt is a very important strategic material.

Conrad, who had been a second-hand dealer in Burgundy for many years, believed that his emperor must be in urgent need of a lot of salt. This time, I not only have to lead troops to serve the king, but also transport a large amount of salt to solve the trouble that the emperor's army will inevitably face - soldiers are short of salt for a long time and have poor endurance in battle, which will be fatal.

As time goes by, less and less salt is transported to Metz. The people have long been short of salt, and the existing salt must be used sparingly.

As for the priests at all levels, as members of the Benedictine order, they have long been accustomed to a life of asceticism. It doesn't matter if there is no salty food in their diet. However, they rely on drinking milk to prevent them from suffering from hyponatremia.

Currently, all refugees suffer from severe chronic malnutrition.

Thirty thousand people crowded into the small city of Metz, which triggered a series of people's livelihood problems, and the deaths caused were no less than a military defeat.

A large number of people suffer from hyponatremic conditions, and their hypothermia is pathologically reduced, which is exacerbated by chronic starvation.

As long as there is food, they eat it. As for the food coming from the Normans, survival instincts trumped all else when faced with the aroma of boiled wheat. After realizing that these boiled wheats were very salty, they ate even more crazily.

There were only about 15,000 prisoners of all kinds. As for the other half...

All the elderly were exiled, and the coalition forces allowed them to flee, which was no different from forcing them to die.

The old men must have died due to the extreme cold in December, but a large number of children still did not survive the first night after the city was broken.

Anyone who can survive must have at least a strong physical foundation. If such people are given high-salt food, their bodies will recover quickly and can then be used by the coalition forces. As for those who have eaten the wheat provided by the coalition and are still unwilling to cooperate, the worst they can do is stab them with a sword.

So, how many idiots are unwilling to cooperate?

Fifteen thousand prisoners, this is still an extremely large number.

All prisoners were raided into five temporary camps: Ross, Nassau, Gothenburg, Wienerstad and Denmark.

To Rurik's surprise, the number of prisoners of war under the control of the Russian army was not the largest.

The Gothenburg Army now controls the largest number of prisoners of war, while the Nassau Army has a small number of soldiers but also controls a thousand prisoners of war.

The ones with the fewest prisoners were the Danes. The reason was that Ragnar preferred to lead his troops to capture young women, and his army was full of such crying women. As for the men... they were either dragged away on an expedition by Count Metz a long time ago, or they died in this year's defense of Metz City. The Danes' plan to capture some male laborers and bring them back to their hometowns to work as cattle and horses failed, but they captured more than 400 young women. They thought they were not at a loss.

The Danes were busy arresting people, and even hacked and killed people in their houses for the so-called gold and silver. In the end, they did not find many silver coins or copper coins, and therefore not much food was seized.

Because we had made an agreement with the King of Rus a long time ago, after the city was broken, everyone would loot according to their own abilities, and they also had to follow the principle of first-come-first-serve and no looting would be allowed among friendly forces.

The Danish army, which lacked purpose, could not compete with the well-prepared Gothenburg army.

As a result, the number of prisoners in the hands of the two fox brothers now reached a terrifying five thousand!

For a time, the soldiers of the Gothenburg Army and the Nassau Army became cooks. When satisfying their own meals, they also had to give the same treatment to this group of Frankish prisoners of all kinds.

The Rus' army also controlled a similar number of prisoners, and the rest was controlled by the Wienerstadt army.

A large number of women want to find a way out for their children. They themselves don't want to die inexplicably, and they can't compromise just for a bite to eat.

At first, Rurik thought that there were a lot of young and middle-aged men among all the prisoners. The reality was bizarre and absurd.

There were a large number of women and their children in all the prison camps, and all the children were young.

Just asking around can reveal some surprising facts.

It turns out that Count Adalbert of Metz went crazy with his last conscription, and all the young men in the villages were taken away to fight, and there has been no news to this day.

Farming work has forced women who stayed at home to go into battle. Women and children have become the main force in farming. The remaining men in the area have to become the defenders of the city of Metz. Although the population of the entire county has reached an astonishing half a million, due to the people The residents are extremely scattered. After leaving the core settlement of Metz, the distance between the two villages is enough for travelers to walk for a whole day. At the same time, they have to be wary of bears, wolves and leopards emerging from the woods.

Adalbert recruited all the men from the villages near the imperial city, leaving behind a large number of women.

The sad thing is that many nobles already knew about Adalbert's defeat and death, even Rurik knew about it, so he happily mobilized his army to directly destroy Metz. It's just that these women never knew that they were already widows a year ago!

Based on the common belief among Frankish folk, an ordinary woman could only marry one man. In theory, she could get divorced at that time, but if the local abbot did not approve it, divorce was impossible.

If her husband dies, a Frankish peasant woman will be a widow with her children for the rest of her life.

Unless there is some situation that the priests are powerless to interfere with, resulting in these women having new men.

A large number of female prisoners were in the Norman camp, and the Normans they saw with their own eyes had two faces. One face was as ferocious as a devil when he was killing people in the city, but the other face was kind as he came to deliver food in person.

The Normans do have two faces, because there are clearly a group of women among those armed warriors.

Female warriors, this is something Frank women could not imagine. I didn't expect that a woman could have another way of living, and the one who controlled her... was actually a wild Norman woman.

Moreover, when a large number of female prisoners took their children to feast on a sumptuous and high-salt breakfast, they did not know that even greater good news was on the way.

After all, some people were killed during the siege, and it was necessary for the priests to hold ceremonies for these dead before cremating them.

Secondly, the priests were ordered to hold a priestly event under the city of Metz for the victorious soldiers and kill some captured cattle and sheep to thank the gods for the victory.

The reindeer convoy and another group of rear personnel came squeaking through the snow, and Rurik had been waiting for a long time.

The war was over, and Verika, who had become desensitized to large-scale battles, saw her king father from a distance. She got out of the car and happily rushed towards Rurik.

She rubbed hard in Rurik's arms, then stuck her head out and asked with a smile: "Dad, you won easily. You captured a lot of prisoners! We shouldn't have much to lose."

"Of course." Rurik rubbed his daughter's head and explained: "There are still some soldiers who died in the battle."

"Oh, that's their fate. But the heroes' souls will go to Valhalla, and we can set up an altar here to see the dead back to heaven."

"That's why I called you over."

After a while, Blackbird went to the other girl priests. They clasped their hands in front of them, walked into Rurik in a serious manner with their heads slightly raised, and then slowly curled their legs and made a half-squatting salute - the so-called "according to the Frankish court" The etiquette changed to the lady's etiquette, which is also the etiquette that female priests now perform when meeting big nobles.

"Blackbird, you came at the right time."

"Your Majesty." For a moment, Blackbird didn't know King Ross's intention.

"You have seen it all." Rurik pointed at the overwhelming number of prisoners. "The war is over, and there are as many as 10,000 prisoners. I am merciful. After breaking the city, I also provided food to save these civilians, and... ...The vast majority of people will not become slaves in the future. Blackbird! You should understand that you have two identities. No matter which identity you are, you have the right to decide the life or death of these captives."

"Your Majesty, what does this mean?" Blackbird couldn't help but raise her head and widen her eyes.

"What? Is it because I speak too fast and you can't understand? Or is my Latin ejection not correct enough?"

"No. I already understand what you mean. It's just..."

"This is another reason why I called you here. You are the Countess of Gothenburg, my adopted daughter, and the princess of the Franks. Thionville is now an enclave of the County of Gothenburg, and I agree with this. As a Countess, you can exercise power locally. I think the population there is not enough, and the refugees in front of you may be able to move there on a large scale."

"You kindly let them leave?" Blackbird asked in surprise.

"I still think I'm not kind enough. I want you to reunite with your fiancé immediately. Blue Fox has a lot of captives in his hands now. That guy is not good at dealing with captives. Maybe you can help him."

Blackbird's heart was extremely excited. Of course, war is indispensable for killing, and she despised and hated this matter. However, this is war. It was something she desperately hoped for if the war ended with less destruction. Before the battle, she frantically ignored Blue Fox and kept saying, "Capture more prisoners of war to ensure life safety." Obviously, Blue Fox did as he was told.

"As you command." She said no more, bowed again and stepped aside.

Soon, Blackbird entered the Gothenburg prisoner-of-war camp, where he saw a large number of prisoners, and everything was as King Rus said.

"You're here, you're finally here!" Blue Fox came careeningly, stroking his belly, his face filled with the joy of victory.

Seeing how naive her man was, and how the prisoners controlled by the army showed no fear on their faces, she believed that the Gothenburg Army really treated the prisoners properly.

She approached the blue fox with a happy face and poked the blue fox's belly with her finger: "How much have you eaten? You must have swallowed a sheep alive. If you get fat again, I will be very stressed." "

"Don't you want me to gain weight again? I don't want to either. Let's take a look at my masterpiece." Blue Fox changed the subject and swept across the entire camp with a wave of his hand: "The old, weak, women and children under my control are all here, the weak ones , the injured are all dead, I'm sorry for that. Those who are alive have eaten the food I gave them and are now recovering well. My dear, I followed your suggestion, the army

After entering the city, we began to control the people's residences. Perhaps this was God's will. Brother Black Fox and I had five thousand prisoners in our hands. "

"Huh? So many?!"

"What? Do you think it's too much? I can actually catch more. Boom!" Thinking of some bad things, Blue Fox lowered his head slightly: "Ragnar and his pirate habits will not change, and they will continue to kill indiscriminately as before. If I If the army continues to control some residential areas, they may be able to obtain another thousand prisoners."

"It's good enough! It's good enough."

At this moment, Blackbird was very pleased with the major change in his man, even though he was captured by this guy more than two years ago.

The internal strife in the Carolingian royal family seemed like a fateful curse. Born in such a family, Blackbird was born with a strong ability to withstand pressure. In the past, she was weak because she had not seen the world. Now she also wants to be a woman. strongman. She also knew that if she wanted to gain power in the Norman world, she must rely entirely on her man, Blue Fox, and give birth to a boy as soon as possible so that mother is more valuable than son.

That's all, by recruiting talents and people from the old Frankish world, and transporting them to Gothenburg to fill the population, they can also strengthen their own power.

There is a strategy to fill the population, transporting a group of young and middle-aged men to the north. It would be okay if these people were slaves, but if they existed as farmers, they might cause chaos in Gothenburg.

She found that almost all the captives were women and children, which would have made the situation completely different.

Frankish women do not have the rough and tough habits of Norman women at all, because faith often behaves like a docile lamb.

The reason behind their large-scale survival also implies that they did not dare to resist when the Normans slaughtered them with their swords.

When such people arrived in the north, a large number of Gothenburg men must have liked such docile women.

Because Blackbird has personally seen the female soldiers and male soldiers in the Gothenburg Army quarreling over trivial matters. If they can't argue, they will fight directly. The male soldiers also began to fight back. When fisting each other, it is better for a group of people to watch, and there are many other female soldiers. The crowds of spectators roared and shouted, as if they were watching some kind of athletic competition.

Norman women are as ferocious as Norman men, and this is what explains the Valkyrie.

But men still prefer docile women. She, Blackbird, knew that as soon as she acted coquettishly, Blue Fox would immediately become as soft as a puddle of mud.

Use docile women to win over Gothenburg men, and use young war orphans to win over Gothenburg women. With thousands of people stationed in Gothenburg in the future, the country's strength will be further strengthened, and as a countess, she can be praised by both groups of people.

In the past, even if the blackbird wanted to show his scheming, his identity and personality were denied, and he was either used as a tool for marriage, or was thrown into the monastery as a waste and ended his life.

She wanted to live for herself, and she wanted to live for herself now.

She wants to transform the County of Gothenburg according to her own wishes, and she wants to transform it now!

To do this, she felt she had to reveal her old identity - Princess Gisla.

So Blackbird changed his clothes and resumed the traditional clothes of the Frankish nobility, even though the climate was now colder.

The Frankish robe, imitated from the Roman toga, was draped around her body. She spread her hair and tied the string around her head to serve as a headband. This was how Frank nobles usually dressed.

In the Gothenburg military refugee camp, more than three hundred women were gathered. They still didn't know what the Normans were going to do, and they were full of anxiety. When a young woman dressed as a Frank noble stood on a deer cart and listened to the standard Frankish spoken by her, everyone couldn't help but be surprised. When they listened to her preaching again, they were shocked.

"I am Princess Gisla, and my father is the king of all Franks. This army you see is my army. As a princess, I am already the Countess of Gothenburg. Count Metz is my enemy, so I The army came to attack him, and you were harmed while hiding in the city. Count Metz was responsible for all the crimes.

Now I want all of you to be loyal to me, I want you to be loyal to the Count of Gothenburg, so that your lives will be protected. We will take you and your children on a ship and sail north, and everyone will start a new life.

Your husbands and sons have all been

Count Metz was called away. The old count has died in the battle, and your husbands and sons are also dead. How can you still live? Only I can save you now. "

Basically, Blackbird thinks too much. Ordinary peasant women don't know about Princess Gisla or the King of Frank. They are just ordinary people in the area. Unless there are special circumstances, they will never leave this area in their lives. On weekdays The only activity space is the village and neighboring villages. Only during grand festivals can you go to Metz to see the world.

The blackbird gave the captives a chance to live, something they couldn't refuse. They were shocked first and then rejoiced.

Many people have realized that after becoming loyal, they will mix with the Normans and eventually become Norman themselves. What else can be done? Thinking about the children he was trying so hard to save, he could only believe what the aloof woman who spoke standard Frankish was telling the truth.

"You all! Kneel down!" Blackbird held his chin high and commanded. The aura from the royal family amazed the admiring Blue Fox, Black Fox, and other little nobles of the Gothenburg Army.

Because those prisoners actually knelt down, which was a declaration of allegiance.

"Very well, now you, your children and friends are all my subjects. Listen! There will be no priests to bind you. I will arrange for you to remarry and you will start a new life. Remember your identity, You will not be slaves, but subjects of the County of Gothenburg, and the nobles have the obligation to protect your lives. Now, your lives have been protected."

As a result, the captives were no longer locals of Metz. They were women and children who worked as tenant farmers, serfs for the local Adalbert family, and their past identities were completely denied. In other words, they would take their children and marry off Norman warriors.

The serf woman was relieved. After all, her life was no different from that of a slave. Being a wife to a Norman in the future couldn't be any worse. At least by running away with the Normans, the debt that he and his children would never pay to the Earl of Metz family would be wiped out.

The mentality of those women from ordinary farmers is extremely complicated. Unfortunately, they have no choice now. If you don't surrender to the new master, you will freeze to death in this harsh winter unless you are killed.

Because they had children to worry about, they were extremely afraid of death, so they had no choice but to believe the lies of this strange Norman man in front of them.

The blackbird jumped out of the deer cart and was pulled aside by the blue fox.

"You can really speak."

"How about it? I conquered them. Now everyone will follow us with peace of mind, and there won't be any trouble along the way." Her smile continued.

Blue Fox shrugged, not thinking that the lecture was really valuable: "Ordinary people still care whether you are Princess Gisla? They just want to survive, that's all."

"Well, that means you didn't do it well?"

"No. You promised to ensure the safety of the prisoners. I can promise you that the prisoners in my hands will definitely be transported to Gothenburg in the future. As for those in Thionville, they can also be transported appropriately."

"It doesn't matter." Blackbird continued: "Just transport the women and children back. Many soldiers are not married yet. Having a Frank wife may make them very happy. Just like... you have me."

"You? This thing feels wrong. In my opinion, you are more like a countess now."

"Don't you like me like this? Hehe." Blackbird smiled coquettishly, and as expected, Blue Fox's heart softened again.

"I like you. I would like you even more if you were two years older."

"In that case, wouldn't we be able to officially get married? I'm really looking forward to it."

"Come on." Blue Fox cheered up: "Everything is our destiny. When you roared at your uncle, I knew that the real you was strong, and the weakness was just a forced disguise. You and I are still the best now. I like it. I will treat these prisoners well. Oh no, they are subjects."

"What about you? Black Fox...brother." Blackbird had no choice but to use the northern tradition and call her brother-in-law brother, although this made her feel embarrassed.

The Black Fox was especially embarrassed to be called a brother by Princess Gisla.

The little fat black fox opened his mouth and said: "Just like you regard the captives as subjects, the captives in my hands,

The moment I got them, they were already subjects of my county of Nassau-Koblenz. They will be flown to Koblenz to start a new life immediately. What do you think of my plan? "

"Perfect plan. Maybe, I can also go to your camp to preach."

Black Fox instantly showed embarrassment and declined: "That's unnecessary. No matter how much you talk, it's better to fulfill your promise. I will continue to give the prisoners plenty of food, and will personally inform them that they will be forced to immigrate to Coblenz, and promise them that there will be no war in the future. .”

"That's fine." Blackbird said no more.

Latest website: