Chapter 1553: At the Barbarian Banquet (Part 2)

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There were many Frankish nobles invited to the meeting. Gilbert and Eberhard were the two distinguished guests, followed by two senior knights from the Count of Nassau from the Taunus Mountain area, and the Earl of Siegburg Palace. Hermann and Sons.

They were invited to participate in the barbarian banquet. They were a little nervous at first. Only when they actually participated did they realize that they were worrying too much.

There were no tables or chairs in the ruined royal palace. Food and wine were placed on the stone floor, and the attendees sat on leather cushions.

Light some bonfires around and light some oil lamps in the center of the venue.

The illumination of the entire environment is not bad, and the most important thing is actually that it is warm.

The soldiers who returned first were so happy that they went to the hot springs in the city to take a comfortable bath, and then washed and dried their clothes. During this period, they consumed a lot of soap. Fortunately, the Russian army had already stocked up on this sanitary utensil in large quantities.

The Gothenburg Army, the Wienerstad Army and the Nassau Army were all beneficiaries of this equipment. They took a bath and changed into new clothes, and fell asleep in their wooden houses before receiving new orders.

During this period, men naturally went to the shacks of captured personnel to select women of their choice, and those who did this were almost all soldiers of the Gothenburg Army. Blue Fox said something first: "You can do this, but you must be responsible afterwards. The child she brings is your child. If you are not responsible, you will harm other brothers' trophies. Such fools will have their arms broken."

According to this regulation, those who want to do such a thing have to think carefully. Considering the financial burden in the future, many people have been persuaded to quit.

Because the soldiers of the Gothenburg Army came from a series of villages in the lower reaches of the Göta River, they were related to each other. According to traditional thinking, all the spoils were shared by everyone, including these prisoners. Because when a woman gives birth to a child, the child is naturally a member of the tribe, and the woman is also fully accepted as a member of the tribe. With such traditional village covenants and the regulations of the Blue Fox, everyone has to be cautious.

They support Blue Fox's decision and have to consider Countess Blackbird's attitude.

In the belief that sooner or later these captives would be taken possession of, a group of men happily married and got new wives and a large group of stepchildren. Especially for some young men, the biggest purpose of participating in the expedition is to find a wife. Now the opportunity is in front of them. Such people are the most unpredictable. They would rather have a wife than money.

People always seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. Although the captives were unwilling, they no longer lived for themselves, so they listened to the Normans' promises and made sacrifices, thus getting a steady stream of money that could support themselves and their children. food, and the right to be protected from other Normans.

Since this choice is dark and bitter.

At this banquet held in the royal palace, the meat was roasted deer, the rice was wheat porridge, and the wine was red wine from Nassau.

On weekdays, the meals of Frankish nobles only contained more meat than the meals of common people, and eggs were not always available. This was not the case in the past era. Due to the fact that ten years have passed since the "Emperor Imprisonment" incident that triggered the civil war, a large amount of manpower and material resources were used in the war, causing the living conditions of all nobles to begin to decline. In some cases, In this area, the nobles live like ascetics.

Therefore, there are almost no fat people among the nobility. Anyone who is obese is completely showing "I am rich" to the public.

The blue fox has succeeded in losing weight, but his round face cannot be reduced. The black fox sits here like a naive fat seal.

Rurik can also eat very fat. He is very concerned about controlling his body shape. Since he has been always fighting in the past years, it is difficult for him to gain weight with such high-intensity activities. This situation is true for the entire Ross army, and the soldiers as a whole are growing taller and stronger.

More nobles participated, including the pregnant Countess of Demyansk, Casimir, the son of the Duke of Gdansk, the three brothers of Gdynia, the lame Ivar, and the de jure Finnish Count Kelha...

Archbishop Hatega of Liege was invited to participate in the barbarian banquet. This old guy had experienced too much. He was worried about how much humiliation he would suffer after rejecting King Rus, so he simply took part in it and took a look at this group of barbarians. How barbaric.

He began to believe that even if he did not sell his soul to cooperate with King Ross, King Ross would

He wouldn't kill himself for certain actions - if he wanted to do it, he wouldn't be able to survive until now.

Take advantage of the opportunity to use your own eyes to clearly remember all the Russian nobles, and also write down the ugly behavior of the Frankish nobles who took refuge in Russia.

After he regained his freedom, he wrote a large number of documents. Firstly, he wrote a report on the situation of the Norman nobles and sent it to the Holy See. Secondly, he sent it to Emperor Lothair to make him realize who the traitor was.

Hatgar saw Princess Gisla eating, and saw the two earls he had encouraged to join the war, and now they were shamelessly exchanging drinks with King Rus.

This place is full of Norman nobles and traitors to the empire. Wine, porridge and roast meat are also placed in front of Hatgar. As an advisor to the emperor, he should not eat the food given by the barbarians. Being hungry, he still took the initiative to pick up the wheat porridge. Although he was very resistant in his heart, he had to admire how well the wheat was cooked.

The Norman nobles were talking and laughing, but he couldn't understand the Norse language. The Frankish and Latin were mixed in, and he was able to understand that Gilbert was fraternizing with the King of Ross.

After drinking the wine and being burned by the bonfire, Gilbert's whole body became hot and his face turned red. He was tipsy and quite excited.

What defeated Lothair, Lamont High was fully open to trade with Ross.

Why is Maasgau a terra incognita? We captured Maastricht by ourselves and let the Russian army stationed at the port.

What else is called Aachen is nothing but the site of Charlemagne's mausoleum.

More blasphemous and transgressive words came out of this kid's mouth, which hurt Hartgar's ears and made him feel psychologically. He had good concentration, so he continued to observe Gilbert's ugly behavior.

In order to keep his head clear, Rurik took a few sips of wine. He looked at Gilbert drinking heavily as if he had never seen the world, and listened to the guy acting drunkenly. He didn't believe a guy's drunken nonsense, but he admired how relaxed this guy was.

"That's it."

Suddenly, Rurik spread his hands to signal everyone who was enjoying themselves to stop eating and drinking.

He sat upright again, and all the people who had known the news in advance realized that the critical moment was coming. They put down their wine glasses and cast their eyes on the king.

"You are not drunk, are you?" Rurik asked again with great interest.

Everyone was trying to prove their sobriety, even if they were really drunk in this scene, they still had to say they were sober.

From the corner of his eye, Rurik glanced at Archbishop Khatga, who was completely acting as a spectator. This guy did not move the glass beside him. The red wine in it remained motionless, and his eyes were full of alertness.

He continued: "This is a banquet to celebrate victory. We could have made it more grand. I feel that we are not qualified to celebrate a great victory now because the war is not over and there is sufficient intelligence to prove the new enemy." has appeared. We must not celebrate until we have achieved a decisive victory!

So... this banquet was just a celebration of our victory over Metz.

Some of the soldiers we captured from Metz claimed that troops from Burgundy and Auxerre would come to rescue Metz. Regardless of this situation, I also learned that those troops will definitely pass through Metz next spring, and then take the Roman road to pass through Trier or Saarbrücken. Their ultimate goal is to aid our great enemy Lothair. If they are allowed to enter the east, Ludwig may be defeated.

We cannot allow the Burgundians to pass smoothly, we must stop them.

them……"

Speaking of excitement, Rurik stabbed the venison on the plate with a dagger and lifted it up: "Just like this piece of meat, it must become our delicious meal. I plan to defeat Burgundy. I am sure that as long as there is a fight, it will be It’s a fierce battle, so...everyone here, we will fight a strong enemy.”

Only when King Ross made his words clear could all the rumors become facts.

After all, Rurik, the king of Rus, can only stick to his word when he clearly informs everyone of his plan. All the information revealed by him before that is highly variable.

The people present were whimpering, because the current King of Rus had already made a declaration of war to the Burgundians whom everyone had never met before.

Rurik clapped his hands to signal everyone to be quiet.

"No one has seen the Burgundians or fought against them. I'm sure they were a powerful army. They were stationed in Dijon, south of Metz. They were not far from our army at that time. If If it wasn't because of the heavy snow, our army might have already fought with them.

If a war breaks out at that time, are we ready to fight? "

Noticing everyone's eager expressions, Rurik decisively emphasized his tone: "If we really fight, we are likely to encounter a surprise attack. Just like other Frankish armies, the Burgundians must have a strong cavalry, and they will charge decisively. If we were caught off guard, many soldiers would die. Fortunately, this did not happen at that time. I already knew about their existence, and tragedies would not happen in the future.

The battle must be fought, so I will not take the initiative until I know the actual situation of the enemy. I planned a stronger defense for Trier's men, blocking their advance with wooden walls and deer forts, and then using our fleet advantage to weaken them. "

So here, Rurik explained his concept of defensive operations to the nobles and officers.

Suddenly, the Ross army, which was focused on rapid attack, slowed down. According to Rurik's philosophy, the Ross army planned to repeat the victory of the Battle of the Sauer River Mouth.

There is a Roman road under the hills from Metz to Trier, next to the road is the quietly flowing Moselle River. The Russian army returned from the snow-covered road, and in the future the Burgundians would also take this road to go north.

There are thoroughfares on both sides of the river, and the meadow area under the hills is generally relatively narrow. As for soldiers marching from the hills, people's movement speed will definitely not be as fast as the squirrels scurrying in the treetops.

An army without navigation advantages relies heavily on road marches. If it is advancing in the wilderness, the cavalry can still guarantee speed. For the infantry, it is a long and tiring journey. Taking the Roman road is a shortcut for the infantry and cavalry, which is not good for logistics. There is also less pressure.

Rurik announced that he would set up a defensive position in the south of Trier. His method was very simple and had been tried and tested in past battles.

To prevent the cavalry from running wildly on the Roman roads, it was enough to build a low stone wall on the road that the horses could not cross, and then use wood to build a fence.

Two more stone walls and fences were built to create passes in the gaps in the hills where the Moselle River passes.

This move would prevent the Burgundians from continuing to advance, and would also prevent the Ross cavalry from counterattacking. However, there is a mountain path due west of the city of Trier. It was through this gap that Gilbert initially led his troops to kill the Ross army by surprise, but was defeated and captured.

If the Burgundians were obstructed by stone and wooden walls and blocked the road down the mountain on a large scale, the Russian army could use boats to continuously fire arrows to weaken the enemy, or they could use cavalry to launch tactical penetrations from the mountain paths.

If the Burgundians were smart enough and would send out scouts to discover a pass suddenly crossing outside the city of Trier, their army would stay in Metz and plan a better strategy. In that case, Burgundy will expose itself and the strategic initiative will be in the hands of the Russian army.

"What do you think?" Rurik said a lot before he asked again.

Many people felt that the king's determination was a bit far-fetched. They either thought that the enemy was like a fool and would dart like a snake on the Roman road at the foot of the mountain. The former is reckless and the latter is stupid. Everyone can see that it is true that the king attaches great importance to the Burgundians, and it is true that he defines them as fools.

"Now that you have rested, we will start preparing for the Hanukkah sacrifice. We will build a huge wooden tower as usual and light it on the night of the festival. The logging will be a big project. I want you to organize strong men to cut down the trees on a large scale. Use the extra wood to build wooden walls, dig a hole in the ground, and bury the sharpened wood diagonally toward the south. What do you think?"

Most people think there is no problem in doing this. The wooden wall at the mouth of the Sauer River has done a great job. Although the possibility of repeating victory is limited, what if?

Everyone happily raised their authority and called the king "high opinion".

Rurik continued: "The snowfall season in Frankfurt is now, and for the time being we can't see any sign of complete snow melting.

, but Hanukkah and their Christmas are just around the corner. In my opinion, snow melts on a large scale only in January. At that time, the ground is muddy, which is very inconvenient for us to march, let alone the enemy. The soil becomes soft, which is very convenient for us to build wooden walls. I want you to preserve the over-cut trees, overcome the mud when the snow melts, and build a dense deer fort for me. Each soldier is responsible for one, and when the time comes, I will plant them on both sides of the Roman road. "

As for why not to dig a hole in the middle of the road and bury the deer village, it is really difficult for others.

Even if hundreds of years of rain washed away the weathered surface stone slabs and lower layers of sand and gravel, all the sand and soil were washed into the Moselle River, and the rammed earth foundation of the Romans' crazy rammed roads was as hard as rock. The power of nature cannot destroy it for hundreds of years, so the Russians should not bother digging holes on it.

Just use all kinds of things to block the passage under the hill. Anyway, the cavalry can take a detour, and the infantry simply uses the fleet to move. The Ross coalition itself will encounter little obstruction.

Rurik confirmed in a completely positive tone that the Burgundian army constantly had cavalry, and that there were many cavalry.

Because he does have some special feelings for "Burgundy", or some awe.

Charles the Bold was a man from the fifteenth century. This man longed to establish Great Burgundy, but was ultimately defeated. When his body was discovered, onlookers were shocked to see that Charles's head had been cut in half, and his death was extremely tragic.

In addition, Rurik had to look down upon Burgundy, which did not exist in this era. Their flag chose the "St. Andrew's Cross", which was the same as Ross's "Oar Flag". It was a white flag with stripes sewn on the diagonal. The stripes of the Burgundy flag are red and have small awn-shaped stripes on them to represent "André's cross burning in the fire."

The flag thus endeared itself to Charles the Bold, who also claimed his claim to the throne of France.

In the Catholic world, nobles are required to have only one wife, and only the children born to this wife have the right to inherit. When a male heir is absent, only his daughter can inherit the title. The ruling family of Burgundy has been passed down from generation to generation, but Burgundy has never recognized the right of female inheritance. This has forced the only female noble to try her best to produce a male heir with her husband so that the boy can immediately inherit the title of Burgundy. .

The only daughter of Charles the Bold relied on this method to secure the family title, and then completed a marriage with Habsburg, paving the way for the annexation of Burgundy.

The Duke of Burgundy hundreds of years later, Conrad, Count of Auxerre in 843, and Wilfin Conrad II of the small kingdom of Burgundy, are ancestors and descendants of each other, even if the bloodline is very weak. .

In 843, the small kingdom of Burgundy did not have its own flag. By the time of Charles the Bold, there was the "Burning Saint-Andre's Cross" flag. Charles' daughter inherited the title, and the duchess's husband was the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian of the Habsburg family. Their son married the Queen of Spain, and the flag became the naval flag of the Spanish Empire.

Galenic ships flying this flag sailed across the oceans for a time and became a symbol of the pinnacle of the Spanish Empire.

Because of this series of marriages, the Spanish Tristaara family, the final victors of the Reconquista, disappeared from history. The great nobles who immigrated to the Mediterranean coast from the Burgundians also disappeared. In the end, the Habsburgs, who were good at getting married, won all.

But...only Rurik knows all of this, it's like a wonderful fairy tale.

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