Chapter 403 Piercing the Empty Ship

A large-scale fleet marched against the south wind, and everyone on board was wearing armor, and the scale was going to destroy the world.

In yesterday's discussion, the only result that the dukes of the tribes discussed was that the offensive in this battle would not be prioritized. No one is the real pioneer in the mixed fleet. Based on this status quo, King Origen no longer wants to spend his time or mind.

At present, the larger the army, the more difficult it is to coordinate with each other. Fortunately, Origen led his own army to fight for the top spot.

The Melalen Army, which had the largest number of troops and the best equipment, was a complete vanguard. They advanced close to the coastline at a speed of about seven knots, and soon after they set off again, they largely threw off the follow-up troops.

"Brothers! Give me the paddling! Don't give those cowards a chance, the spoils are all ours!" Karl no longer cares about his status as the crown prince, he pulled away a seemingly lazy rower, who sat down and shouted The slogan desperately shakes the paddle.

Gradually, Karl and the three longboats he led, showing a triangular formation, became the real pilots like a cluster of arrows.

Olegin stood on the bow, looking at his son who was running faster and faster, and couldn't help baring his teeth.

One of his men worried: "King! If Arik runs too fast, will they encounter the enemy's main attack? It's not a good thing if they encounter a siege."

"That's what I'm afraid of. Damn it, you guys keep paddling for me and keep going."

It can be said that Carl's military adventure is forcing the entire Melalen army to follow desperately, which has caused their speed to remain at a high level.

However, there were six large boats without oars closely following him. As long as he saw the Ross Army following, Origen would be envious and hated.

Because the ships of the Rus rely entirely on sails, they are sailing against the wind, and the speed is actually the same as that of the Meralen army, which is a mixture of wind and paddle!

In this way, during a morning voyage, the coalition forces were essentially divided into two echelons.

The Ankras and the rest of the army, their leader has lost his mind now. It's all my fault that my skills are not as good as others, and I simply can't keep up with the rhythm of Melalen and Ross.

Any wise person knows that the speed of the Melarens is at the expense of overdrawing the physical strength of the warriors, but those Rus, whose ships are carrying a lot of materials and people, can still move fast at sea. The Ross army did not lose any physical strength. As long as they were willing to land and fight, they would be extremely powerful.

A young girl stood at the bow of the boat with keen eyes, Carlotta held the side of the boat, she looked at the world in the distance, and her spirit became more and more vigilant.

Standing beside her were Otto and Rurik.

"Arriving at your hometown now?" Rurik asked cautiously.

"Yes. War could break out at any time."

"Alright." Rurik nodded, and immediately ordered the mercenary to remove the oil from the torsion slingshot.

This move made Otto, who was in a calm mood, suddenly cautious: "What? Rurik, did you expect danger?"

"Not yet, if there is, the three pretentious ships of the Melalen people will be in danger first." Rurik pointed to the three ships in the distance, and they maintained the attitude of going deep alone, "It's about to reach that bay. , we should prepare too. Maybe we'll meet the Gotland fishing boats first, Dad, and we should sink them."

"That's true. But you're going to sink them? Can you do that? With your weapons?"

"Exactly." With that being said, Rurik was not entirely sure. There are differences between testing and actual combat, and even the negligence and tension of personnel can lead to the weakening of the torque slingshot.

The order to prepare for battle was first passed on the Avrora, and then all ships entered a state of combat readiness.

The people in the cabin were checking their bows and crossbows, and many people had already gathered on the deck. Many wooden crates full of arrows were moved to the deck, especially the ammo crates for the torsion slingshot, where the tapered cast iron projectiles were randomly piled up, and then mercenaries began to carry wooden barrels full of sticky seal grease (temperature When it is lower, it is semi-solid), smear grease to lubricate the slide of the slingshot, and even dip the torsion rope again in oil to increase the strength.

Origen often pays attention to the actions of the Ross people, and seeing that they have been preparing for the battle very actively, his heart suddenly becomes nervous.

"It's finally going to start?"

Indeed, the battle started in an unexpected way.

Karl, who was essentially the vanguard, saw a small boat floating not far away. Isn't that what a fishing boat is? They are fishing boats, Gotlanders or Danes! They are the enemy!

Carl shouted: "Brothers speed up! Catch up with those enemies and kill them all!"

Soldiers are crazy about fighting, so paddling is no longer boring, the exhaustion of the paddlers is gone, and there is only a desire to kill and a desire for wealth.

So, the first unknown ship discovered by the fleet was really the Gotlanders?

Those ships were of course from Gotland.

Because the ships of the Rus were looting on Tombstone Island, that is, the waters south of the Åland Islands, relying on advanced crossbows, the Gotland fishermen suffered a lot of losses and could not be recovered in a short time. Then go to the northern sea to work.

Since the Gotland-Danish coalition sacked the Ostara clan of the Northern Alliance, and by the way scared away many clans, the living space they left behind was of course accepted by the Gotlanders.

Gotland is so big, with a population of 20,000 crowded on the island, and the living space has become more and more crowded.

In fact, Gotland is also a large island, with a width of forty kilometers and a length of one hundred and forty kilometers. It's just that due to the current production mode of the locals, most of the land owned by the islanders has white sea sand, and the land conditions are not good enough that the yield of wheat is surprisingly low. They are more dependent on raising sheep and fishing, and now that the size of the pastures is saturated, the fishing grounds are a dangerous battlefield.

If you can move to land, why not do it?

As many as 600 Gotland Islanders have established their "Northern Bazaar", Norrköping, in the area of ​​Old Ostara.

The essence of this north is for the Danes. Norrkoping can be described as the northernmost stronghold of the Gotland people. The excellent developed pastures here have suddenly become the source of wealth for Gotland immigrants. They raise sheep here, and of course there are some Danish merchants resident here, waiting to collect the latest sheared wool.

Having lost their big fishing grounds, they found fish resources in the bay, and Gotland settlers fished in the Blo Bay, which Norrkoping enjoyed.

If life is like this, these immigrants will certainly continue to live their lives.

Continue to expand? Unless they wait until Norrkoping's resources are no longer enough for the emigrants, they will naturally continue north, plundering territory from the Svearans.

Unfortunately, they miscalculated.

They felt that the rapid rout of the Ostarans followed by their total annihilation proved that the northern Svealans were a bunch of cowards.

As for the Rus, the Gotlanders have long known the identity of this group. The Rus' sturdiness is comparable to that of the Danes. Over the years, the Gotlanders have always been at a disadvantage, so they never regard this group of people and the Svealans as all the way.

The Gotlanders misjudged the situation. They organized a mighty army to invade Blow Bay two years ago and swept the locals with a destructive force. Now, the coalition forces from the north have come to seek revenge.

Carl quickly caught up with the fishing boat, even as the fishermen struggled to break free.

Can a seal survive the pursuit of a killer whale?

Carl's boat was directly connected to the fishing boat. The long boat was much more sturdy than the small fishing boat. The spear poked from the long boat directly stabbed the fishermen to death.

Four Gotlanders, who were trying to break free by paddling, were the first to die.

Carl had no intention of paying attention to this boring boat. He was excited in the initial killing, so he stood up, put his arms around the bow of the long boat, raised a spear in his right hand and shouted at his brothers: "We continue to charge, the most Land first, kill their men, women are yours!"

People who were already crazy were stimulated by blood, and the whole person became more excited. Now up to a hundred people have entered a state that resembles a Berserker, even if they did not eat poisonous mushrooms.

Before long, the second fishing boat became the ghost of Carl's axe.

It has to be said that Carl can kill his wife and concubine in the same bed competition, and even wave his fists at some of his subordinates. His manic side is easy to show because of some stimulation. He's aggressive and possessive, maybe he's not good at scheming, but it's this bravery that makes him very qualified as a Berserker.

His spear throwing level is not low, and he hit three enemies in a short fight.

His team also has very obvious shortcomings - the number of long-range weapons is low and the quality is poor.

There were six fishing boats operating in Blow Bay, all of which were wiped out by Carl's troops.

Gotland fishermen either died on their boats or fell into the sea and disappeared. The empty fishing boats floated on the sea, and the following boats had no time to take care of these boats.

Because the fleet has begun to turn collectively, heading to the right bay is the real battlefield.

The current situation does not require Origen to roar anymore. All the ships of the Melalen Army have been beaten with blood. Even though their longships are towing a lot of empty boats (for loot), their speed has become faster.

This is because after entering the bay, the south wind can flow into the bay area, and each ship is blessed with stronger wind.

The entire Melaron army turned around, and the Ross army following them calmly just adjusted the position of the sails, and the six ships adjusted their direction accordingly.

Only now, even if Rurik was standing in the poop, he could see that the friendly ships behind him had become somewhat blurred spots.

Obviously everyone who is a pioneer has left the second echelon too far.

Some empty fishing boats drifted aimlessly on the sea, and Rurik saw the dead people inside.

"[ ] They have already achieved victory. Rurik, leave these ships alone." Otto said solemnly, pinching his son's neck.

"No! We happen to be experimenting with these boats."

"Sinking?"

"Really!"

Otto's interest picked up. He held the side of the ship and watched the mercenaries hold the ratchet wrench. The three torsion slingshots on one side made creaking sounds.

When the bowstring engages the tenon, the tapered cast iron projectile is firmly seated in the chute.

These cast iron projectiles have sharp heads and are actually quite small.

These torsion slingshots developed by Rurik have the same mechanical structure as the Roman scorpion crossbow, such as its elevation adjustment mechanism.

These torsion slingshots all entered the pitch angle state. With Rurik's order, three projectiles smashed past under the watch of dozens of people on board, and even most of the entire fleet.

The distance between the Avlora and the enemy ship was only ten meters. At such a close distance, the projectile maintained a lot of kinetic energy the moment it hit the target.

Of course, these projectiles cannot cut through solid oak at one time. For these fishing boats made of cheap pine boards, three projectiles directly cut three holes.

Soon, the projectile was loaded again, and another salvo directly penetrated the broadside of the fishing boat. The power of the projectile was not reduced much, and it actually smashed through the other side of the rib. The ship already has eight obvious holes, and the water is pouring in fast.

In full view, even Otto witnessed the whole process of the sinking of the fishing boat.

He had never seen such a thing in his life, no matter how bad the ship was, it was hit by his own weapon and sank in front of him!

In this situation, Otto had to think a bit more. If this was the enemy's real warship, the Avrolla's weapon was just a few rounds of projectiles, causing the other party's crew to turn into underdogs? Such an enemy either sinks directly to the bottom, or clings to a floating block of wood for a while, and if there is no help from others, he will die in the vast sea.

Even the fighters who manipulated the torsion slingshot felt incredible about this, as if they had gained a divine power, or rubbed against the divine power radiated by Rurik.

Actually? This is the power of technology.

Rurik was not excited, it was fake, he secretly laughed, and teased his father with a smile: "Dad, what do you think? Are our weapons brave?"

"How brave! You actually succeeded."

"Of course!" Rurik pretended to sigh: "We can make a bigger one, so that a single projectile can smash the enemy's ship. So we can't fight the enemy's side and kill, our ship is already very large. , there is no need to fight. Now you can see that we can sink enemy ships from a long distance, and the enemy is just powerless to face us."

"Wow! Really."

Rurik squinted his eyes, intriguing: "So you know why I rejected Olegin's desire to buy a ship?"

"You! Oops! That's how it is..."

Otto slapped his helmet abruptly, then looked at the torsion slingshot that had returned, and was pleased that the large ship and weapons were still monopolized by the Rus. If the Melarens get a large ship that resembles the combat power of the Avlora, the Russ will suffer.

Due to the abundance of ammunition, the Rus simply sank three fishing boats floating on the sea. Rurik estimated that the maximum actual distance of the torsion slingshot is 50 meters. Such a distance is roughly the limit of the conical cast iron projectile piercing the enemy's rib. If the enemy replaces the oak rib, it will require power. A bigger Torsion Slingshot goes into battle. Rurik wasn't quite convinced that the "cast iron drills" that were fired would be able to destroy high-quality oak longships very efficiently. .

The Rus were literally at odds with the "target boats", and they soon began to chase the Meralon fleet.

It is obvious that the Melalen army has all entered the fjord, and is continuing to close towards the bay, and their fleet is becoming more and more compact.

According to the agreement, the Russ had no reason and no need to be involved in frontal operations, and even distant support, even shouting and cheering, was superfluous.

Any slaughter that will happen on the shore has nothing to do with the Rus people for the time being, but according to the agreement, the Melalen people can take out the spoils.

The southerly wind that poured into the fjord gave Ross's sailing ship an extremely fast speed. The Avlora had caught up with the tail of the Melalen Army. Now everyone on the ship saw what was happening in the distance. A group of Melalen warriors have landed, and they have begun to fight.

But the enemy...

Rurik couldn't help frowning: "Could it be that our army is attacking too fast, and the enemy has no time to prepare?"

He saw some dazed people standing on the shore not far away. Those guys seemed to be unaware of the danger, or were they completely frightened by the sudden army? It was as if some wise men were hoisting their sails and fleeing up the fjords.

"Look! The Melalen people have landed." Otto slapped his son with his left hand, and his right hand clenched the patterned steel sword and pointed directly at the original landing site of the Melalen Army, a landing site where a group of Gotland ships were parked. .