Chapter 977: Encounter at Osnabrück

The East Frankish army camped on both sides of the road, and the more open areas in the woods were good places to set up tents.

The woods covered the road ahead, and the soldiers collected dead branches and stones everywhere. They unloaded the pottery urns from the carriage and poured water from the stream to cook the oats.

As the king of the Eastern Kingdom, Ludwig's own food was not much better than that of his soldiers.

There are not so many bells and whistles, and a barbecue is a very hearty meal.

The lower-level nobles who shot rabbits specially presented a skinned fresh hare to the king, and Ludwig was happy to cut off the roasted meat with a knife.

After all, he is not a mediocre person. As a military noble, he is not used to riding in a carriage at all.

He marched on horseback himself, and also intentionally directed his beloved heavy cavalry troops to charge when necessary.

Now, even though Charlemagne's time has passed, the bravery of the Franks has not been lost.

Charlemagne had four grandsons, all of whom knew how to ride horses to fight. Such great nobles are always on the front line of battles, simply because all lower-level nobles need their king to be a brave warrior.

In this way, the great nobles may also put themselves in danger. For example, the second eldest brother was twenty-three years old and galloped on his horse. As a result, he accidentally fell off the horse and was seriously injured and died.

No one cares about the death of the second child, and even secretly rejoices that he is dead. In this way, the fourth brother, Bald Charlie, who had no fiefdom, immediately and reasonably replaced most of the second brother's fiefdom.

The three princes represent the three top forces in the kingdom, and they each gather their friends to fight.

After all, they are brothers from the same father and mother. War is war. If there is a one-man duel, no one is willing to kill the brother.

However, Ludwig was determined to deal with the rebellious Saxons and invading Normans. He was also mentally prepared. The so-called battle was a gamble on the national destiny of the Eastern Kingdom.

He was extremely satisfied looking at the dense array of bonfires on both sides of the road. The army rested in the town of Münster for a few days. After the subsequent troops arrived, the whole army set off at the same time. Now the whole army maintained a very close distance, and he was able to observe the grand performance of the army under his command.

"I have 23,000 mercenaries, and I have the blessing of the archbishop. There is no need to worry about the winter expedition, I will win!"

The strong force gave him unprecedented confidence, but long hours of riding made Ludwig sleepy every evening.

He was actually only thirty-five years old, and as a European monarch he was in the prime of life. It was precisely at this age that he still had the spirit of pioneering and enterprising that gave him the courage to carry out the current "Winter Offensive".

He didn't bring his wife or son with him on this trip, and there wasn't even a maid by his side.

There were even no women in the entire huge army.

In many cases, the king's authority could not be extended to the followers of the minor nobles, and those people would secretly do things such as robbing civilian girls. This time, because the Archbishop of Cologne went on an expedition with holy relics, if anyone was found to have stolen, robbed, or robbed women, there was only one method of punishment - hanging.

Ludwig decided to resolutely maintain military discipline entirely because of the archbishop's surveillance eyes.

As a result, the Eastern Kingdom's army became not only well-known but also infallible. To the Franks, Ludwig indeed became a great hero.

But this does not mean that the plunder of the people does not exist. When the army passed through Münster, it basically moved the granaries of this small town. For this reason, the local priests complained. Thanks to the mediation of the archbishop himself, these complaints were eliminated.

The army still needed more logistical supplies. Ludwig did not know how long this winter war would last. His launch of this battle was not only the vent of his anger, but also the support of Archbishop Hardbold of Cologne.

The Archdiocese of Cologne is a productive place. Under the protection of the priests, the people here have always remained neutral in the civil war. It can be said that the people live and work in peace and contentment. By exporting food, they can continue to accumulate wealth.

If they support one side in the civil war, their strength will be greatly enhanced. Nominally, the Diocese of Cologne is classified as the Eastern Kingdom, but in fact it has always been a regional qualification.

Now the archbishop is determined to support Ludwig's just actions out of his own safety, which in fact proves that they are indeed loyal to the Eastern Kingdom.

The Archdiocese of Cologne did indeed suffer a real sneak attack by the Normans, and it is a fact that Duinsburg and Nijmegen suffered heavy blows. As a result, they not only gathered a thousand people to support Ludwig, but they were also willing to use the wheat in the warehouse as military rations. Once the so-called army had a food crisis, the backup could be continuously transported to the north through the "Hell Road".

Aren't they afraid of winter snow?

In fact, the "Road to Hell" leading to the north was carefully built by the Romans in ancient times, and it is as solid as a rock. If the snow is serious, horse-drawn sleighs are used to transport wheat to the north.

It was already evening, and the whole army was ready to wrap up their blankets and sleep after eating.

As night falls, some visions that can be obscured by the treetops of the forest cannot be concealed.

The fire burned the northern sky red, and the dozing people stood up one after another.

Everything was just like what they saw in Cologne. It was obviously late at night and the sky in the northwest was unusually bright red. It was later proven that this was the evil act of murder and arson committed by Norman pirates.

When someone realized this, an unconfirmed news spread among the military.

"The Normans are setting fire to the north!"

The soldiers hurriedly informed King Ludwig of the news, causing the young monarch who had just been lying down to get up suddenly.

It's incredible that the Normans ran overland and set fire to it. How could their ships still run on land? Is there a big river in the north?

Walking out of the tent with doubts, and following the direction pointed by the soldiers, he saw a terrible vision in the north.

Are there any towns in the north?

At the same time, Archbishop Hadbold was extremely shocked after hearing the rumors. The vision in the sky proved that a certain place was burning. The burning place was none other than the town of Osnabrück.

The archbishop hurriedly found King Ludwig, and the two continued their brief exchange, deducing that the enemy had invaded Osnabruck rampantly, and with the shameless means of the Normans, they must have killed everyone they saw. Burn everything again.

"Revenge! These satanic attempts must be punished!" The archbishop's eyes were filled with tears. He could not tolerate his faith being tarnished, especially the holy Osnabruck. Because it was the first monastery and the first colonial town established by Charlemagne in Saxony.

Thinking of his great grandfather's masterpiece being tarnished and his faith being tarnished, Ludwig felt double hatred in his heart, and Ludwig couldn't care too much.

It was really not suitable for fighting at night, and the Frankish army did not have the ability to fight at night. In fact, a special factor is restricting the army's ability to fight at night - night blindness.

The situation of the elite troops was better. Among the largest number of peasant soldiers, one or two had blurred vision at night.

Some priests explained that this was because God did not want the soldiers to be addicted to swordsmanship, so he sent down divine power to punish them. Some priests also speculated that the soldiers were addicted to weapons and lacked religious faith, so they were cursed by demons that haunted the night.

It has been everyone's consensus not to fight at night, and Ludwig and the Archbishop are helpless even if they watch the flames rising into the sky from the north.

(The amount of yellow-rooted carrots grown in the Eastern Kingdom is too small, and the people mostly eat oats and rye. Their meat intake is better than nothing, and their overall physical fitness is not high enough. There are more carrots grown north of the Elbe River and in Scandinavia, and the people Eat more fish, and like oily cod liver and seal liver, which are generally not lacking in vitamin A.)

There may be an encounter with the Normans ahead! As for why no one speculated that the rebellious Saxons might be responsible for the disaster, no one believed that they would betray their faith and attack the monastery.

The majority of soldiers are mentally prepared. Some are excited, some are trembling, and many are mentally numb.

The chainmail and leather riveted iron armor that had been thrown on the carriage began to be distributed to elite soldiers, many of whom wore armor instead of cotton.

Ludwig also made some arrangements, planning to send a 500-man heavy cavalry mixed with light cavalry unit, all lightly armed, to explore as quickly as possible.

Others brace themselves for an encounter.

…

So the next day, Frank's light cavalry began to run wildly.

Carrying round shields on their backs and wearing the lightest upper body armor, they dashed forward.

A flag captain of the heavy cavalry flag regiment led the mission. He felt a bit robbed of honor by suddenly taking off his heavy equipment to perform the mission.

The war horse jogged all the way, maintaining a high speed equivalent to ten kilometers per hour.

They were about ten kilometers into the journey. When the forest cover dispersed, they saw a plain in the forest and a town that was still burning.

The soldiers were heartbroken when they saw all this.

"They really attacked the monastery! Damn it, where are the evil figures?" The flag captain looked around, cursed the Normans for their shamelessness, and then ordered the cavalry to disperse to investigate the situation.

These hussars marched straight into the burning town, trying to find anyone alive.

But they saw many dead bodies in the bare farmland.

Checking the cause of death of the deceased, some were hacked and some were shot.

There were fatal holes in the corpse, and the deceased could only die from a missing arrow. Such a cause of death is even more suspicious. Could it be that the Norman archers could still run to the southern forest area? How dare they be so bold after breaking away from the ship?

When the news came back, the flag captain thought for a while and made a sudden judgment - there were enemies stationed in the nearby woods.

Could this open space in Osnabruck be a battlefield?

Hoping to get more information, they decided to conduct further inspections and also hope to find some survivors to figure out what happened.

Little did they know, a pair of eyes were watching everything happening here in the distant forest.

Regarding the appearance of the Frank cavalry, this incident really surprised the Ross cavalry general Fisk.

The Ross cavalry carried out a mass killing yesterday, and the brothers took away a lot of gold and silver utensils and some wheat. After all, he was deep in enemy territory, and Fisk, who was young but experienced in many battles, still had to hide his figure tightly.

They spent the night in the forest, and their horses were placed among the trees.

Yesterday's hacking and killing made the brothers consume a lot of energy, and everyone had an extra night of sleep. They were supposed to continue southward to look for targets for a sneak attack after waking up, but instead noticed a large group of cavalry appearing in an open area.

Fisk and some of the guys went to the edge of the woodland.

Some people asked: "Who are they? They can't be Franks."

"No one but the Franks."

"Boss, what should we do? Suddenly rush out and catch them off guard?"

Everyone was asking about Fisk's attitude. He gritted his teeth and thought for a while: "No. Let's continue to see."

So, they stayed at the edge of the forest and continued to watch.

This is never a good idea.

But speaking of the Frankish light cavalry, they were ordered to search around the entire town, and some cavalry planned to go to the forest area to explore.

Some shaking white shadows appeared in the woods to the west of the town, which were too conspicuous in the gray-brown forests of late autumn and early winter.

More than thirty Frank cavalry lined up in a horizontal line. For safety reasons, they moved collectively and walked quickly in the direction of the white thing.

Suddenly, the Russians in the forest were shocked.

"Oops! We're exposed!" Fisk exclaimed.

"Boss, how about we fight."

"That's right! Brothers are tired of killing those boring villagers. Attacking those Frank soldiers is not as interesting at all."

Under the fire of all the guys, Fisk also took the risk. "Then fight! Let's fight according to grassland tactics! We will shoot them in this open land. Let's go!"

They collectively pulled away, and from the perspective of the Frank cavalry, they saw some white monsters swaying collectively for a few times before disappearing collectively.

In this way, even a fool would know that there must be something big there, either some unknown beast or an enemy ambush.

But it was said that the Ross cavalry had already noticed the presence of the Farak cavalry. They had already raided to eat dry food, and were busy holding bags of oats and handing them to the horses' mouths.

Although they could mount their horses and fight, now that they saw General Fisk running back in a hurry, they all knew what to do.

"Everyone mount up! Shoot the enemy! Follow me!"

After a while, the Ross cavalry temporarily tied the fifty horses where the logistics supplies were placed to wooden stakes. All two hundred cavalry removed their white bear furs to keep out the cold, put on iron helmets, took recurve bows and a large number of arrows, and rushed out collectively. forest.

They hold the bow in their left hand while holding the reins, and they hold three light arrows in their right hand.

Two hundred horsemen appeared one after another. The cold white leather jackets they wore outside their bodies made the Franks who came to investigate instantly understand. Unfortunately, they had no power to fight back.

The dense arrows made the thirty cavalrymen feel uncomfortable. With the precise shooting of the Ross cavalry as they passed by, in the end, all thirty Frankish light cavalry were wiped out in just one round.

The Ross cavalry are completely uniform in uniform, and each squad leader also has feathers on the top of his helmet. The more feathers, the higher the rank.

Fisk's iron helmet looked like a blue and white rooster's comb, and the brothers followed his movements and launched attacks.

At this moment, the Frankish light cavalry had no formation at all. The riders had their own tasks. They had to search a large area and they were extremely scattered.

This gave the Ross cavalry every opportunity to defeat them.

Two hundred cavalry formed a group and rode and fired at the lone enemy.

The entire army uses conical carbon steel armor-piercing arrows. Seeing that the enemies have armor, many people directly choose to shoot at their horses.

Once a cavalryman falls off his horse, he is likely to suffer fractures and ruptured internal organs. If he is lucky, he can stand up with a buzzing head. Such people become a living target while standing.

This is not like a battle, but more like a collective hunting of prairie people.

The captain of the Frankish flag seemed calm in the face of the sudden attack. He tried his best to gather the heavy cavalry under his command, and then ordered to his subordinates: "Those light cavalry recruited temporarily are unreliable! Warriors of the kingdom, draw your sword! Follow me and charge!" "

There are more than a hundred of these heavy cavalry, and they are well-trained and gathered together. Unfortunately, although they are called heavy cavalry today, they do not have real heavy armor on them at all. Protection was sacrificed for easy marching, but even so, they still launched an attack in the face of the sudden appearance of the enemy.

Although they still don’t know the specific identity of the enemy, their clothes are incredibly uniform, and they appear in the ruins of the city. Who else can be the enemy to perform terrible killings besides them.

The desire for revenge and the sense of honor were intertwined, and the Frank cavalry finally organized their troops to watch the battle to confront the Ross cavalry.

I saw Fisk holding his bow high, and the cavalry split into two groups for a moment.

Next came the specialty of prairie tactics. The brothers again missed three times with their right hands, and passed three times with close-to-face riding and shooting. Needless to say how many enemies and horses were killed in this attack, in just one round, the ten-wall formation of the Frankish light cavalry was disrupted.

Besides, some of the Ross cavalry also made some creative twists and "returning arrows".

The sharp arrow clusters broke through the gaps in the armor and penetrated into the flesh, and some arrow clusters were even cut into the riveted iron sheets.

The Frankish cavalry was not discouraged and encountered another desperate "non-contact blow" in the second round of confrontation.

This open area became a battlefield for the cavalry of the two armies. Although one side had a large number of troops, since it did not have a single archer, it was ruthlessly mocked by the other side's cavalry archers.

The real Frankish light cavalry had already fled en masse. Noting that continuing to fight would lead to death, the flag captain reluctantly ordered: "Let's go! This is going to be the venue for a decisive battle."

At the end of the last round, Fisk's eyes were full of enemies fleeing.

One brother's eyes turned red and he shouted arrogantly: "Don't run away! Cowards! If you run away, I will hunt you down myself!"

There were many people willing to hunt them down, but Fisk gave the order to stop them. In other words, the pursuit was not launched immediately.

The Ross cavalry was ordered to recover the lost arrows, search for the enemy's wounded, and seize a few relatively healthy prisoners to tie them up and take them away. As for the other injured, kill them all and start a Viking-style insult!

So, after capturing two lightly wounded prisoners, all the other prisoners were beheaded.

As many as eighty wooden pestles were placed on the ground, and on them were heads dripping with blood. The captured broad-bladed Frankish iron swords were placed directly next to the head, and combined with the town behind which was still burning, the sense of terror was further enhanced.

The Ross cavalry retreated into the woods again, and this time the brothers could no longer waste their time here.

No one understood the Frankish language, so Fisk did not know the enemy's situation, so he sent a cavalry squad of ten people to escort the prisoners of war and a small amount of captured iron, and rushed towards the Bremen Bridge on the Weser River as quickly as possible, hoping to encounter them. Go to Arik's bridge demolishing unit, inform him of various news, and then transport the prisoners of war to Hamburg.

Fisk still didn't know the enemy's situation. He estimated that the large number of cavalry was actually a kind of scout. The scouts actually have hundreds of riders. Isn't the enemy's large force not far away?

The soldiers continued to hide in the forest not far from the road, and continued southward in the gaps between the trees.

Then at noon, they could hear a lot of roaring noise nearby with just their ears.

It was the sound of soldiers walking and whispering, the creaking and creaking of vehicles, and the grunting of packhorses, all combined into a low roar.

The Ross cavalry were both informative and terrifying, and at the same time, they also had a strong desire for sneak attacks.

Sneak attack? Do it or not? ! Of course!

It's time to find a suitable sneak attack target.

Fisk, who has experienced hundreds of battles, does not need to fight with the Faraks. If he wants to sneak attack, he will attack the enemy's weak brigade. Based on past war experience, and even his own marching experience, the weak brigade is always at the end of the team, even with a lot of baggage. Also at the end.

Therefore, Fisk deliberately moved everything in a narrower direction, making a large circle and reaching the rear of the Frankish army's march.

There is no one here, but there are many traces left on the ground.

"Just follow the road! Sneak attack on their tail. If they fight back, we will retreat south along the road. Follow me."

With an order, the Ross army began to carry out a "tail-biting attack" on the Frank formation at an extremely magical position in the afternoon towards dusk.

Ludwig was unaware of all this.

On the contrary, Ludwig understood a little bit of his destiny, and even made a serious misjudgment about it.

The Frankish army began to march rapidly, and everyone remained on alert. Just because the bloody information obtained based on personal encounters with the light cavalry, such as the Norman cavalry who were all dressed in white, was exactly the same as Earl Robert's report.

Ludwig felt that a war was bound to break out in Osnabruck.

It's time to punish the arrogant Normans!