Chapter 1557 Camp on the South Bank of the Loire River

When the war began, the two brothers, Reglave and Bruno, destroyed the outskirts of the city of Orleans in the Norman way. Village after village was deliberately burned, forcing the villagers to flee on a large scale. The refugees first fled into the city for refuge.

As the siege began, those refugees who were unable to escape into the city found ways to escape elsewhere.

Fleeing to the east was a good choice, so Auxerre, Troyes, and Champagne all knew about the big trouble in Orleans.

Since the door could not be opened, the coalition forces lacking imagination had no choice but to retreat.

As the cavalry from Auxerre and Troyes quickly arrived in Orleans and ensured the safety of the north bank of the Loire River, the coalition forces withdrew to the other side by boat. The dragon-headed longship became an excellent weapon for transporting troops, and coupled with a large number of small barges, such a coalition force could come and go freely.

Of course, a group of troops were defeated by the sudden arrival of the cavalry. The prisoners also told Conrad, Count of Auxerre and the Burgundian, a surprising fact - Le Mans had been lost, and the new ruler was from the direction of Tours. Come on Robert.

Before the civil war, the great nobles of the empire generally knew each other, and marriages were common.

Robert, this is not a name that a cat or a dog can call. It is almost a hereditary name for the Earl of Rheingau family. As an old Frankish family, other families will not name their sons after this to avoid being misunderstood as provoking the Robertia family.

Conrad immediately knew who his enemy was, and he did not choose to risk his life and pursue the victory.

The Burgundians have their own ideas, just like this all-out civil war, forces large and small have their own ideas.

Even the Celts who came across the sea and stayed in Brittany had their own ideas.

Conrad was not related by blood or marriage to the rulers of Orleans of this generation, so it was the utmost kindness to send cavalry to relieve the siege, and he did not immediately ask Count William for a commission.

The fact is that Conrad asked for money afterwards. Since Tours' army stayed on the other side of the river and set up camp, the Count of Orleans had no chance to give him money. Since he could not get the silver coins for a long time, the city was not captured by the enemy. , fearing the unpleasant autumn rain and the possibility of the first snow, the Auxerre cavalry withdrew first.

Because the cavalry could not run wildly on the water, they did not dare to make a long-distance attack on the city of Tours.

Hugo III, the old Count of Tours, served as a royal advisor. Although he passed away, he left a rich legacy for the family.

Lothair's wife is the eldest daughter of the Earl of Tours. Although Tours openly opposed Lothair, Tours never participated in the war in the past few years.

The strength of the Tour army should not be underestimated. Just like other Frankish nobles, they imposed cavalry construction. Because of their relatively strong financial resources, the number of cavalry Tour could mobilize was astonishing.

Taking the initiative to provoke them might frighten the collective spirit of the nobles south of the Loire River, and the first to bear the brunt will be the high alert and counterattack of the nobles of all sizes in the Kingdom of Tourbo - this group of Gallo-Romans once again controls the power Human descendants are not easy to mess with.

After all, Auxerre is not the foundation of the Conrad family, Burgundy is.

Conrad did not want Burgundy to be attacked by a combined attack from Tours-Nantes-Aquitaine-Toulouse.

The cavalry withdrew, and poor William could only observe the changes in the situation nervously. Now, Tours' army was on the other side of the river, and its camp showed no tendency to evacuate. There are long boats cruising on the river every day to announce their presence, and the flags of the Mercian army are said to be flying.

Mercian army? It's ridiculous and incredible, they are obviously Norman pirates.

The fact is that Reglaf's Mercian army really snatched a large amount of newly harvested wheat and happily withdrew to the other side of the river, accompanied by many prisoners. The captives are a large number of local farmers and women. They specialize in young and handsome ones. Some of them are humane and think it's okay to marry them after taking them as their own. Most of them plan to abandon them afterwards.

In the end, it was the priests who dealt with the aftermath of these bandits, and the women who were in a trance ended up in women's monasteries. The peasant woman who was initially caught and abandoned was finally sent to Tours in a bullock cart.

As a military commander, Robert's attitude was extremely indifferent. He didn't care about the outcome of a group of boring peasant women, he only wanted Orleans.

The siege failed in late summer, and the quick victory turned into a war of attrition due to the impenetrable stone wall. He was too unwilling to evacuate, and now the days had dragged on into late autumn. It was only then that he had the intention of evacuating because he was afraid of snowfall.

He was still extremely unwilling.

News that the adults are about to retreat has spread among the army.

A forest lies across the river from the city of Orleans. To the south of the woods is where Robert's army is stationed, and further south of the camp is a larger and more magnificent forest.

The five hundred heavy cavalry from Tours were what he considered to be a major bargaining chip for their re-emergence. The remaining more than a thousand infantrymen recruited from Tours and Le Mans were usually useless, but they were good at looting.

Because a considerable number of soldiers came from Le Mans, they lost their old master and were forced to defect to the new master. Many people were unwilling to do so, and Robert knew this very well. He could bribe these guys with money, but he had no money at all, so he allowed these people to plunder freely in Orleans. They could act like Norman pirates. Everyone robbed based on their ability, and whatever they robbed was theirs. No tribute of any copper coin is required.

Robbery is an important means for Robert to solve problems. As for how much infamy and anger of revenge this will cause, he can no longer care about it for the time being.

Lambert II, Count of Nantes, sized up the situation and formed an alliance with Tours, and then recognized Charles "The Bald" as the new king of Aquitaine. Even if this little Charles calls himself "King of all the Franks", he is willing to admit it.

Lambert did not want Nantes to intervene in this civil war because they had a more real and realistic threat-the military threat of Armorica, or the small kingdom of Brittany. There were constant military frictions between the two sides. Most of the main force of the Nantes army was located in the northern part of the territory. They were always on guard against sneak attacks by the Brittany. The main force of the Earl could not escape.

Emperor Lothair and the Duke of Great Bavaria fought fiercely in the Alsace region, and the two armies were fighting in the Rhine Valley for the third year, that is, 844. Now there is a huge change, which is the rise of the County of Nassau-Coblenz. What kind of savages they were, they plundered everywhere, and their behavior was beyond the reach of the moral Frank nobles.

Another major event was that Aachen was attacked, and many important towns along the Maas River were looted. All evidence showed that it was the work of Norman pirates.

Deep in Nantes, the mouth of the Loire River comes out. In the past, small-scale Danish pirates also visited here, until those strange long ships with cross flags appeared on the river.

The Earl of Nantes soon learned the truth of the matter, and the information came from the description of the young Regrave.

In this way, the question before the Earl of Nantes is extremely clear. The so-called complete alliance with Tours is equivalent to an alliance with the legitimate King of Mercia, Reglaf, and it also means an alliance with the Kingdom of Rus, whose name is slightly heard.

Then, the Norman army flying the flag of "Saint André's Cross" with blue stripes on a white background will let Nantes go. At least, any pirates who attack Nantes in the future will have nothing to do with the Kingdom of Ross.

Earl Lambert II then sent his youngest son, Wibert, with a hundred elite soldiers to assist Robert, the son-in-law of the old Earl of Tours, in the battle.

This Nantes elite force was all cavalry, and twenty-year-old Wibert led them in a series of battles. Because the battle to capture Le Mans went too smoothly, Wibert's Nantes army suffered no losses, and the victory would hardly make the young man feel proud.

In fact, the war lasted for more than half a year, and the real damage was the group of various guys that Robert paid to recruit. A group of serious criminals in Tours Prison were consumed in the war. As for whether the guilty souls of the criminals were forgiven by God, no one cared, and the bodies were later buried together.

It was no longer possible to attack the city. Bored soldiers were wandering around a large area of ​​tents. Those who were extremely bored simply lay down on the withered grass to bask in the sun.

Since there was nothing to do, Robert allowed the soldiers to do whatever they wanted.

As for guarding against enemy sneak attacks, this is even more nonsense.

There were no enemy troops on the south bank of the river, and there were no bridges on the river. The small port that once belonged to Orleans was burned down. The coalition forces also captured a group of barges, which left the Count of Orleans without the ability to counterattack.

Robert was just doing nothing. He just came back from hunting. The accompanying cavalry dismounted and howled and slaughtered the hunted wild deer and many rabbits. Even a wild boar with a mane as hard as needles was dragged all the way back, as if hoping to Continuous scratching on the grass can cause the mane to fall off.

He noticed the two young men returning and waved kindly.

"Did you go to the river?" he asked with a smile.

"Yes." Reglaf answered casually.

"Is there anything going on over there in Orleans now?"

"Nothing unusual, they seemed to have disappeared halfway." Bruno shook his head regretfully.

"They are just a group of turtles. I'm sure they haven't disappeared, they are just hiding behind the stone wall. If we launch another attack, they will come out and resist wildly."

Regraf listened with interest, and the sluggish Jingping cautiously cheered up: "Uncle, are you planning to attack?"

"No." Robert shook his head helplessly: "I plan to retreat. Let that William go to hell! When I sort it out, I will deal with him next year."

Regraf shrugged: "Perhaps my father's army will have arrived by then."

"Is it Rurik's army? Who knows? Only God knows. It's hard to imagine how long it would take for your father to come from the far north, and how many troops he would bring if he came."

Feeling that he heard the contemptuous attitude, Reglaf turned aside and retorted: "It will definitely be a powerful army, with excellent weapons and powerful troops."

"I hope so. You'd better convince the troops at the mouth of the Rhine. I think that's the most realistic. With those Norman armies, we can successfully break through Orleans." Robert had no intention of talking about this issue anymore. He picked up his waist and shook his neck, signaling with his eyes: "You guys are good to come back. When the deer and pig are roasted, we will share them together."

At this moment, Robert's mentality was quite proud. He was defeated by the Ross-Saxony coalition back then, but now? The son of the King of Rus and the son of the Duke of Saxony are in the hands here, and they are fighting together like friendly generals. Compared to commanding other nobles, these two young men really worked hard in fighting.

Robert suffered losses in the Elbe River, but he consciously recovered them in the Loire River. This kind of spiritual victory comforted him.

His military camp was completely defenseless, and there were no villages in a large area. They camped in a forest wasteland, and the cavalry could easily capture some prey deep into the forest.

The cavalry chased and intercepted the wild boar herd, but the furious pigs did not dare to fight back against a group of behemoths. The lone wild boar was stabbed to death by the cavalry spear.

There are also horsemen who dismount their horses and attack wild deer with bows and arrows, and lay a large number of trip rope traps for hares.

Although two thousand troops were cobbled together, this team was very rough in terms of logistics.

After leaving Le Mans, they each brought a small amount of supplies, and then they raided the villages near Orleans to plunder grain and livestock. When the farmers fled and plundered the remaining grain, they completely relied on fishing and hunting to solve their food problems.

In a sense, a major reason that forced Robert to withdraw his troops was also lack of food.

If there is still a lot of food in hand, it is not impossible to set up a winter camp on the other side of the river. However, the army increasingly needs to hunt for daily meals. The weather is getting colder. It will be difficult to hunt after snowfall. It will be difficult to withdraw the army by then. Very dangerous.

At night, the wind stopped.

The coalition camp was filled with the aroma of barbecue. Reglaf held a half-roasted wild boar shank and gnawed it despite the unpleasant smell of blood and meat.

The coalition forces didn't bring much salt, and now they had to use it sparingly, so that most of the soldiers were eating authentic roasted rabbit.

Happily, the hares are plentiful and silly in this forest, and it’s easy to catch a lot of them by setting up trip wires.

However, the educated Regraf knew that such military rations were simply not enough. The majority of soldiers continued to rely on rabbit meat to satisfy their hunger. This would be fine in the short term, but in the long run some "rabbit hunger" would begin.

Regraf threw the remaining pork bones into the fire and asked Robert: "When do you plan to withdraw?"

"I will have another day of rest tomorrow. I will inform the soldiers to indulge for the last time, and then I will leave camp and return with the loot."

"How to indulge? Is it for those prisoners? And..."

"Get rid of them all." That's all, Robert also made a motion of slitting his throat.

"But aren't they all villagers? I thought you would treat them properly, but I didn't expect... that you would also act like northerners."

Robert didn't take it seriously: "They are not my villagers. Even if they are my people, they are a group of humble farmers. Besides... these people are not allowed to stay. If these guys are allowed to live in Tour and spread the news about what we have done, Things are bad for me, and they are bad for you too. Young King of Mercia, think about what you have done? You are a Norman."

As for this, Robert didn't say anything more.

What this guy said is that Reglaf launched a Norman-style plunder. Only by letting the army go will the brothers be willing to sacrifice their lives for him. He calmed down and nodded: "I understand. The prisoners in my hands will be completely gone tomorrow morning."

"Smart decision! Get rid of those guys quickly. And you." Robert's eyes looked at the youngest son of the Earl of Nantes again: "Wibert. You also have some prisoners in your hands. Listen to me and take them all. and deal with it.”

"Is this...really necessary?"

"It's necessary. Boy, we've all done this, and you have to do it with us, otherwise it won't be fun."

"But."

"Forget it." Robert's eyes showed a hint of threat: "Don't forget, your father's alliance with us means that the whole of Nantes is in alliance with the Normans. You see, King Ross's son has decided to take action, you Why do you hesitate? Or do you think God will punish you for doing this?"

"I...I'm really afraid of this."

Robert did not dare and would not deny God. He just felt that he had done a lot of evil things because of the war and God's punishment had not fallen on him, so he gradually became more confident: "Then go complain about this war! All the blame lies with Lothair and that stupid William of Orleans. Don't worry, no one will blame us, and if any bishop dares to talk nonsense, he will be killed."

Wibert gritted his teeth and said, "I'll do it."

The coalition forces captured many prisoners around Orleans. Except for a group that had been sent away, there were still more than a hundred prisoners left in the army.

The farmers worked as coolies for the coalition forces. As for the captured village women... they were so humiliated by the Normans that their eyesight turned blind.

The coalition forces did something that would make all priests ashamed, and Robert also knew that his methods were too cruel. In order to cover up this, he would rather act like the Normans and keep his integrity aside.

Over the years, he lost his title as Earl of Rheingau, experienced too many hardships, and was accustomed to the harsh conditions of the world. He is actually a master who has changed his allegiance many times and is still changing his allegiance to this day.

Louis the Pious, the current emperor Lothair, Duke Ludwig of Bavaria, and Charles the Bald, who has now usurped the throne of Aquitaine.

Robert just wants to live for himself now. He is no longer satisfied with the Le Mans he just owned. In his heart, he has already taken the Kingdom of Tours as his own. The next step is to wait for the death of the young count and the frail Hugo IV. You can publicly become the new Count of Tours.

But because of his wife's attitude, he was not crazy enough to help little Hugo go to heaven as soon as possible. He was also willing to wait. The boy had been sick all day long and had recently started to cough up blood. He might not even be able to make it through Christmas this year.

That night, all the prisoners were executed.

Regrave instructed his people to solve this kind of problem cleanly, and also helped Weibert of Nantes, who was unwilling to do it himself.

On this issue, his ruthless side as an old Russian was fully demonstrated. He was so decisive that even Bruno was frightened, but he had to admit that this kid was a ruthless man capable of great things.

In order to hide their eyes from others, they dug a big pit overnight. In the morning of the next day, they threw all the dead bodies into the pit, filled it with soil, and let the horses trample them. At first glance, the cemetery does not exist, there is just a trampled racecourse.

The blood on the sword and ax has dried. The Norman warriors under Reglaf are excellent executioners, and they have no psychological scruples.

For this group of brothers, converting to God is just a stepping stone to successfully enter the Frankish public activities. Many people still think that they are Odin's warriors. At least no one believes that they have any "original sin". Indiscriminate killing is not a sin. But a testament to brave warriors.

This is easy to argue. It is said that it is a sin for people who believe in God to kill each other. How can we explain the Frankish Civil War that has been intensifying for many years? Did nobles ever think about their own sins when they killed each other? Besides, it is a great irony of their faith that some bishops participated in the war.

"Have you finished everything?" Robert approached the Mercia Kingdom's camp and found Reglaf.

"Easy, you can't find those people's graves now."

"Very good. The coalition forces will leave tomorrow. I'm going back to Tours. You and Bruno come together."

"You're not going to Le Mans?" Reglaf asked again.

"I won't go. I want to stay with my wife and children in Tours, and... little Hugo, who is seriously ill. I'm a little worried that the child won't survive Christmas this year."

"Sigh. I thought I was already very pitiful, but I didn't expect him to be even more pitiful."

"Are you really pathetic?" Robert almost laughed bitterly: "How can you be more pathetic than me? Fortunately, I still have a chance to rise, and so do you. It's just that little Hugo has no chance. You and I don't want to be with that kid either If you get too close, the child is cursed. Beware of bad luck coming to you and me. The Tour family is also falling apart, and I am the only one who can inherit it."

"It doesn't matter. If I were very unlucky, I wouldn't have been born with schizophrenia. My biological mother has taken away all the bad luck for me."

"You." Robert knew some legends and murmured: "Maybe you will be the Caesar of Britain. Everything is fate."

Regrave had known about Robert's ambitions for a long time, and he didn't care about them.

He didn't have a bad feeling towards little Hugo. Instead, he sympathized with the child and was willing to contact him even at the risk of being "cursed by the devil." Little did he know that such a peer from the north had quietly established a rather tall image in little Hugo's heart.

When little Hugo saw Reglaf, he imagined that he could move so freely. Unfortunately, his body that was about to collapse made everything come to nothing.

If little Hugo must die before Christmas, I am willing to accompany him to the best of his life.

After all, little Hugo is also the legal Count of Tours, and he is probably the last Count of Tours.

(The direct Earl of Alsace of the Tour family has already settled in northern Alsace. Count Gerard and Emperor Lothair are trapped in the isolated city of Strasbourg)

Reglaf is willing to accompany the last Earl of Tours to the end as the King of Mercia.