Chapter 818: Envoy From Denmark

The prosperous port suddenly went into depression, and a new Viking trading city that was expected to replace Hedeby turned into a battlefield overnight.

The Russian army's beach landing seemed exciting to Rurik, but it was also quite boring when you think about it.

"Victory comes so easily? They probably have a trap. There is no need to rush, I will hold steady on the beach first." With this attitude, he boarded the capital of the King of Denmark.

A new harbor, even the thatched houses near the bay are quite new. The residents here ran away cleanly, and they fled in a very hasty manner. After a brief inspection, Rurik was convinced that there were no traces of an orderly evacuation in the buildings, but that all the buildings were quite chaotic. This must have been the result of a violent search by the first wave of soldiers who landed. Did they rummage through boxes and cabinets and find a lot of treasure? Maybe.

Rurik had no intention of delving into the outcome. It happened that his cousin Arik came to report his work, and he asked about it by the way.

"I noticed that you were searching the house to see if there was an ambush. You were very thorough in your inspection, and it seems you gained something."

"Are you asking how many silver coins the brothers found?" Arik smiled naively.

"How about it, everyone got rich?"

"It's not ideal." Arik shrugged. Under the setting sun, his sharp eyes were directed towards the wooden fortress on the stone hill. He held two swords and pointed directly at them: "Obviously, the most treasures are there. That is a fortress. We have to perform a feint attack!"

"Indeed." Rurik also raised his head: "If our army operates improperly, it will suffer undue losses. How about it? Are there any casualties in the first attacking force? Were you able to survive the ambush when searching the house?"

"There were not even any wounded. The brothers killed the enemy's wounded soldiers, and then everyone was busy looting. The Danes are weaker than we thought, and you definitely don't have to worry about the losses in the subsequent siege battles."

Rurik nodded and whispered softly: "It would be nice if you left a few alive."

"Oh? Brother, I heard what you said. Keep alive? Is it still necessary now?"

"At least you can know the inside story of the enemy. How many troops they have, and whether the King of Denmark himself is present."

"This is not a problem. It seems to me that you plan to launch the main attack tomorrow. We'd better prepare quickly. While the morale of the brothers is up, we can attack and seize the city in one fell swoop tomorrow."

Rurik was deeply impressed.

The battle seemed to be entirely a draw, with the advantage going to the Ross army.

The beach was cleared slightly, and the soldiers who landed took up defensive positions under Rurik's instructions. Those carts and torsion slingshots transported with the ship were assembled on the coast and became a kind of mobile heavy firepower. Captured planks, boxes and trolleys were pieced together to form a low parapet barrier where the trolley-carrying torsion slingshots were placed. Five slingshots formed a shooting position, and the cast iron projectiles were installed in the slide first, but the ropes were not charged.

Even the army's campsites are very particular. Although the army can directly seize the buildings left by the enemy, considering the enemy's possible night attack, this should not be done.

Many Russian generals felt that it was nonsense for the Kingdom of Denmark to launch a night attack war. If so, it would be seeking death. Smart people would never do such a thing.

What if they think they can do it again?

"You all should learn from this! This is a battle in the enemy's territory. We are all outsiders. We must believe that the enemy has the will to defend the territory. I would rather you treat them as the most ferocious enemies, and I do not want you to suffer losses by underestimating the enemy. I want a sure victory and strictly follow my requirements!"

Rurik's attitude was decisive, and his subordinates felt that the subsequent arrangements were a bit redundant, so they could only follow them.

A rope is tied around a wooden post, or a double-edged forest ax is used to chop directly, or even two people work with a saw. The fishermen's thatched houses near the shore were destroyed on a large scale, and a large number of buildings collapsed at the same time, which greatly shocked the Danish army watching on the wooden walls of the fortress in the distance. What are the Russians who landed there doing? Are they demolishing the house? !

Danish soldiers had been on alert. They saw the collapse of civilian houses, a large number of bonfires lit up on the coast, and an ominous but definitely numerous landing regiment squirming in the sunset. The soldiers informed the troubled Danish King Horik of the news. Based on this news, he frowned and declared to his generals: "The Russians must fight us, and this battle must be towards me."

A young general stood up and said, "King, maybe we should send an envoy. Even if we can't convince them to go away, we can still delay time. As long as our reinforcements arrive, everything will be fine."

Horik had no such intention, but someone suddenly mentioned it. After thinking about it, he felt that it was constructive.

He glanced at the other subordinates, and those he looked at had expressions of embarrassment on their faces, and some even retreated unconsciously.

"What's going on? I feel like there's someone scared in this house."

One general said bluntly: "We never get to the point of negotiating with them. Besides, if we shoot the envoy, look at the current situation, they will kill the envoy. If I were the invader, I would refuse to negotiate because I have the advantage. I If the Russians decide to refuse to negotiate, we will definitely fight."

"But Rasmussen said we could do it."

"It was his suggestion, let him negotiate with the Russians!" the general said. After finishing speaking, everyone's eyes turned to Rasmussen, the previous speaker.

"That's fine." Horik looked at his war chief: "You were brave in Flanders, and you will still be brave now. I want you to inquire about the situation of the Rus people and inform them that the king is in the city. "That's right, Horik cleared his throat deliberately: "You must persuade the Russians to attack. I want their corpses to be filled under the wooden wall."

What else could Rasmussen do? He didn't dare to show his nervousness, but the words the king asked him to relay would definitely anger the Russians and cause his head to be chopped off. However, he had no choice but to go, and no one at the scene had a good word to say for him.

"Okay! Everyone is destined to die. If I die, you must defeat the Russians and make my death worthwhile."

"You are a real man! I wish I could lead the cavalry to break through the door myself, but I am the king, and I should not do this for the sake of the overall situation. You go, if anything happens, I will take good care of your wife." Horik's His words were sanctimonious, but his past deeds weighed heavily on everyone's minds. This man was very kind to his close friends and took great care of his widow.

Just as the Danish king and his ministers held an emergency military meeting, the Russians on the beach made the battle bigger and bigger.

After counting the corpses, the Ross army found as many as fifty horse corpses, and naturally there were also fifty corresponding cavalry corpses.

Based on the condition of the corpse, Rurik obtained important information - these Danes were elites, and their riders and horses all wore armor inlaid with patches!

This situation is exactly the same as the situation of the Frank cavalry reported by Ragnar and Arik last year. Rurik also had to estimate that there might be a Frank army in this city, or a Frankish Danish army.

The Ross Army built an arc of defense along the beach, and as many as 1,500 combat soldiers landed. Warriors armed with crossbows and bows were divided into large groups and arranged in groups relying on torque slingshot positions. The outer defense of the army is made up of these defense units, so there are a large number of passages in the middle for subsequent infantry with shields to maneuver out to build a traditional shield wall.

Hundreds more people were staying on the ship. The Ross Navy immediately began to screen the captured ships. Small fishing boats were directly scuttled with axes, or hauled to the beach and chopped into pieces for firewood. As for the large number of larger rowing long boats Just take it away.

Now, the "Royal Shipbuilding Workshop" built by the Danish King is completely occupied by the Russian army. Rurik learned that the Danes built cargo ships in large wooden workshops, but he and everyone else did not take it seriously. This does not come from arrogance, but everyone thinks that this is a mediocre cargo ship building workshop. Not only does it have nothing to do with military ships, but these so-called large cargo ships are already outdated garbage in the eyes of the Russian army.

What the Russians regard as rubbish is treasure to the Danes.

What Rurik ordered was deliberate destruction. The usable cargo ships were naturally pulled away. Later, ropes could be used to connect to the Ross ship. Those half-built ships were directly set on fire!

A torch suddenly appeared, and the flames burned brighter and brighter!

The Danish soldiers who were following us hurriedly reported: "King! The Russians not only seized our shipbuilding workshop, they also set it on fire!"

"Huh?!" Horik, who already had a headache, was furious. He even suspected that he had asked General Rasmussen to negotiate in vain.

He walked out of his palace and stood outside and could see the red firelight in the direction of the shipbuilding workshop. The low clouds in the sky in that direction were burned red...

"Damn the Ross people! Do they already know my plan?!"

At this moment, the guards were all silent.

When Horik climbed onto the wooden wall, he smelled a strong burnt smell in the air, with a hint of barbecue. The fire in the shipbuilding workshop is definitely just the beginning. If the Russians want to, they can set fire to it.

The inner city's material reserves are quite sufficient, and Horik is not afraid of the siege by the Ross army. He was so angry that he wanted to lead his brothers to open the city gate and rush over, relying on his bravery to kill the Russian camp.

But the low brightness at night forced him to give up this idea. If he thought about it more carefully, the brothers really rushed to the beach, fearing that they would be hit by arrows fired by the anchored ships again.

Horik decided to be a turtle for now, even though he thought it was too cowardly.

There were many large fire spots in Godfreyhagen, which was intentional after Rurik's order. Buildings deemed to be of great value must be burned, even if it may be just a spare warehouse.

The war horse was decomposed, and the rough horse meat was dripping with blood. The taste was a little fishy. As long as you sprinkled a lot of salt and dried it enough, it was still edible.

Those armed slave warriors were the least picky. After they were authorized to cut the horse meat freely, everyone cut off a large piece for a full meal.

When it comes to food and storage, Rurik, who attaches great importance to logistics, will never treat his soldiers badly.

The only people who were ordered to deliberately set fires were Rurik's mercenaries. After carefully leaving the seaside camp, they also took tinder and bags of saltpeter to create a bonfire array efficiently.

Firewood was taken from the enemy's houses, and the wood and thatch were piled together to make a bonfire.

From the perspective of the Kingdom of Denmark, the number of Russian troops was unpredictable. The bonfire first started at the beachside camp, and then the light quickly spread to the two wings.

The person who carried out Rurik's order was the Dane Grund, but even though they were all Danes, he was too lazy to care about the guys in the city because he was his master.

They groped cautiously, setting fires and conducting reconnaissance at the same time. Once they found signs of the enemy's night attack, they ran away.

Setting bonfires on a large scale to create suspicion may seem like an ordinary tactic, but it is actually a "black technology." The Frankish Kingdom, not even Charlemagne in the past, had never done this. Perhaps the ancient Roman legions would have used this strategy, but the Danish, Frankish and British kingdoms of this era did not understand it. But setting up a camp can become part of the tactics? Of course, King Horik of Denmark didn't understand either.

How did the Rus bring in such incredible numbers of troops? Horik didn't quite believe it, but the dense bonfires outside the city were a fact.

The soldiers were talking a lot. They could guess that there would be a decisive battle in the next one to two days. The soldiers were busy replenishing supplies and polishing spearheads. After learning the news that "we are besieged by the enemy" said by the brothers at the top of the city, they did not want to eat bread after that. . Especially the infantry soldiers. When they were mobilized, they didn't know how many ships the Russians had arrived. Now they couldn't see clearly the enemy's strength in the dark.

The only thing visible is the bonfire formation that surrounds half of the city. There must be thousands of people eating grilled fish around the bonfire, right? Some even pessimistically estimated that the Russian army would arrive at 10,000 people.

Faced with this situation, General Rasmussen, who had always had the guts to "talk things out", also gave up. He had no choice but to go there in person, and took two of his cronies to wade into the muddy water with him.

The rope was lowered, and the three people descended along it, walking cautiously along the bumpy alley.

The population of Godfreyhagen was not large at all, so the three of them walked a short distance and were already very close to the beach.

The attack came very quickly. The crossbow-wielding security skirmishers who were placed at the outermost edge of the camp by Rurik, who were hiding in residential buildings with horns and small leather drums, captured them with axes and swords.

The three of them were taken directly to the camp. The skirmishers went around saying that they had done a great job in catching the prisoners. After hearing the good news, soldiers carrying grilled fish skewers and roasted horse meat gathered around.

The crowd gathered around to look at the poor captives, laughing at their unfortunate appearance sitting on the ground.

"Stop watching, get out of the way!" Arik shouted loudly, and he took action himself to let the onlookers make way.

Rurik heard the news and followed closely. He was quite happy that his men had captured the prisoners.

However, after some inquiries, it was discovered that a Danish war chief who claimed to be named Rasmussen came in person to explain the attitude of Danish King Horik.

"Horik?!" Ragnar, who was accompanying Rurik, could no longer hold back. "Hey boy! Do you recognize my face? The leader of the Stonewall Tribe! Me! Ragnar Sigurdsson."

"You?! I..." Rasmussen thought carefully, regardless of the vague memory, and said bluntly: "I recognize you, and I later learned your name. Ragnar the Hairy Pants."

"You are so courageous that you dare to come to our camp. If you want to die, I will help you die." After saying that, Ragnar had already pulled out his ordered Ross steel sword with a cold light. After all, he was not actually I like this unsightly nickname.

Rurik hurriedly pulled the impatient guy: "Wait a minute! If the two armies are fighting, I don't want to kill him."

"There is no need to keep it." Ragna put away his sword angrily.

This was not a good place for a detailed discussion, and seeing poor Rasmussen's hands tied up made him want to simply untie them and drag him to the campfire where he was resting. Rurik first revealed his identity as the Prince of Rus himself. The purpose of the war he mentioned made Rasmussen take a breath of cold air - the Rus army came to ask for the head of King Horik.

Rurik did not kill the envoy during the battle between the two armies, but the only one he did not kill was the envoy himself.

In front of the messenger Rasmussen, Rurik signaled that Ragnar could immediately launch revenge. The steel sword stabbed two followers to death, and their heads were chopped off by Ragnar with the hand ax on his waist, stabbed on a sharpened wooden stick, and smashed to the ground amidst the cheers of many warriors.

They are all Vikings, and doing this kind of thing is in line with "battlefield etiquette." Although Rasmussen would not be scared to death, he also estimated that the Russians would not give the Danish Kingdom any room to make concessions.

But he still had to do what the king told him. Rasmussen actually felt that he had a chance to rush forward and kill the young king of the Russians. But it seemed that this young man was also a powerful warrior in his own right. Many of his warriors wore Bear skin, even the helmet is not too troublesome to hang on the terrifying bear upper jaw. All his weapons were confiscated, and he was monitored by a group of Rus warriors while he was bare-handed.

He had to explain King Horik's request. The so-called "request" really surprised Rurik.

"Hahaha, I thought that man would give me a lot of treasures and slaves to appease my army and bribe me to withdraw my army? So that's not the case? The short, fat, round-faced man begged me to attack his city. He is Thinking that his wooden wall can withstand our army's offensive? How confident is he?"

After Rurik finished speaking, everyone present laughed heartily.

Rasmussen said frankly: "We have three thousand troops. If you attack, you will be seeking death. Although your arrows are strong, if the two armies are really fighting, our Danish army has a huge advantage."

"There are three thousand people?" Rurik still looked arrogant, but he had to be cautious in his heart.

"Indeed. My king is not afraid of you."

"Then let him bring out the army and we will fight outside the city."

"But there is no honor in your fighting methods! A true warrior of Odin must fight with dignity, with axes and swords, and even with fists. Killing people with arrows is an insult to a warrior." Rasmussen Plausible words.

Rurik shrugged. What this man said was indeed part of the warrior culture, but it was not accepted by everyone.

"An upright battle." Rurik secretly smiled again, "I think there is no need for us to continue talking. I noticed that when you planned to use cavalry to overwhelm our army, you were not upright. For you like this, I It makes sense to shoot with lots of arrows. I won't kill you, go back! Go and tell your king what you saw."

Rasmussen, who thought he was going to be killed, was suddenly startled: "You want to let me go?"

"It's easy to kill you. Find Shuyuan www.zhaｏshuyuｕan.com. But no one informed your master about the attitude of the Ross army. He wants to defend the city and wants me to attack the city? Okay! You just wait here for the time being. I want to Write a letter to your king.”

After a moment, a document written on cardboard was folded and stuffed into Rasmussen's hand. He was not aware of the wonder of the paper, but he only noticed the important information written on it in traditional rune script.

The letter is actually a short sentence: "Foolish false king Horik, you cannot defend Godfrehagen. Prince Rus' Rurik Ottoson will launch an attack after dawn. Tomorrow evening, I will use your Skulls as new chalices.”

Rasmussen got the letter and ran away. The soldier who planned to shoot an arrow in the back was stopped by Rurik.

"Brothers, let him go back and report the news! Let's all prepare well and have a good sleep. Tomorrow we will attack with all our strength and burn the city down after robbing the treasures!"

The soldiers shouted one after another, which in turn triggered the Viking war cry from the entire camp.

In the eyes of the Danish army, this is a precursor to an attack!

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