Chapter 979: The Supreme King of East Francia Arrives in His Loyal Bremen an Der Weser

, the rise of Rurik

The pampered Archbishop Hardbold of Cologne is pampered. He only had a hard time as a junior priest when he was young, but now his life is quite good.

He didn't understand what weapons were, and he seemed to be trapped in a cocoon while living in the Cologne Cathedral for a long time.

In other words, he had ample time to study the Bible, teach the priests piety, and celebrate various festivals.

His understanding of war came largely from biblical descriptions and hearsay from military nobles.

War is sacred! Countless angels will give glorious blessings to the heroic warriors, and the barbarians will be defeated by the powerful divine power.

The Frankish army arrives in the north, and the invading barbarians and traitors will be ruthlessly defeated.

However, the battle that Hardbold experienced was completely contrary to his expectations.

He fell into a coma due to excessive panic. After a period of unconsciousness, he finally woke up. When he opened his mouth, he asked around him: "Am I still in the world?"

"Pada, everything is fine." A junior priest comforted him.

"Really okay?"

"Yes, we are already in a safe area."

While the archbishop was in a trance, the heavy infantry had already escorted all the priests out of danger, and even the body of the unfortunate priest who was shot was taken away with them.

For Ludwig, the King of East Francia, today's experience was simply terrible, with ominous omens everywhere.

What the majority of heavily armored warriors faced was a messy battlefield ruins in the open field.

Only the hot embers and a few slow-burning pieces of wood were left in the town, the charred corpses, the dead bodies scattered in the wilderness, and the comrades who died in the battle.

Horses lying sideways and dead can be seen everywhere, and the heads on the wooden bars are extremely horrifying.

Now, Ludwig learned that the tail of his army had suffered a very painful blow.

When he learned the news, he rode his horse and scratched his head. When he saw the archbishop lying lifelessly on the carriage, he thought he was dead.

He had no time to care about the Archbishop's life or death, because there were still as many as 60% of the supplies at the end of the army. The comfort of supplies was related to whether the next battle could be continued.

A group of heavy cavalry arrived at the Sorbian army after a long journey, only to see that except for a few dead bodies, there was no trace of the people who were supposed to be escorting the supplies.

All the carriages lined up and stopped in the center of the road. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw them.

"These despicable devils, you have the guts to sneak up on me, but why don't you dare to show up? If you had the ability, you would have taken these carriages away?!"

Many cavalrymen heard the king's roar and followed him to the carriage team to see the situation.

All the horses were lifeless and fell down, some were still twitching, and the ground was covered with wet things. Even though the light was very dim, they knew it was blood through the strong fishy smell.

The more Ludwig checked, the angrier he became. He suddenly pulled out his sword and slashed into the air, and cursed angrily: "Despicable bastard, you dare to kill my horse!"

But it was said that those Sorbians who fled into the forest to avoid disaster, when they heard the sound of horse hooves again, they all had the intention to poke their heads out to find out, but they all shrank back this time.

If it weren't for Ludwig's loud curse in Frankish, the Sorbians would have been able to hide until tomorrow morning.

The disappeared Sorbians appeared one after another. They thought that the king could protect their brothers from being killed by the barbarians. Unexpectedly, Ludwig became angry and took out some Sorbs to vent his anger.

As many as twenty prominent Sorbians were arrested, convicted, and publicly executed in the town of Osnabrück, which had returned to Frankish control.

For a time, heads were rolling, and the Franks released some anger over the loss, and some of them were further chilled by the Sorbians.

All the horses were killed by the enemy, which made Ludwig more and more frightened. He somewhat understood the reason for the terrible loss of the three thousand cavalry sent before, and he encountered some rare difficulties.

Although Captain Frank was angrily urging the Sorbians who had returned to the team to do something quickly, he was cursing again: "If the horse dies, you will act like horses! Pull away all the moving vehicles. If you dare to neglect, press the button." Behead the fornicating barbarians!”

Those who were executed were all the leaders of the Sorbian slave soldiers. The remaining people were soldiers in name, but now they were disheartened and became "human pack horses" and had no interest in war.

The town of Osnabrück was recaptured, but it was in a state of scorched earth.

There is a rare vast open space in the forest, and it is perfect for an army of more than 20,000 people to camp here.

The archbishop regained consciousness and quickly spoke to Ludwig. The old guy seemed to have lost his soul and stuttered for the first time.

"This war is cursed! We can't go north anymore, we will all die if we continue..." This was followed by a bunch of incomprehensible mutterings.

Ludwig, who was furious, actually hoped that the archbishop could hold a mass in public and provide final care for all the corpses that had been collected. Unexpectedly, the Archbishop became a frightened fool.

Ludwig suppressed his grief and anger and asked sharply, in a very rude tone: "What is your decision?"

Without using honorifics, the archbishop was also startled, and now he became more firm in his opinion: "I plan to withdraw with all the clones. Louis, I advise you to withdraw immediately, otherwise you will also be cursed by Satan."

"What? You want me to withdraw my troops?! Bah! You don't have to say any more."

"Then, let's go by ourselves!" the archbishop said excitedly, and the fat on his face was trembling violently. He immediately ordered the junior priests standing around him: "We will leave tomorrow morning. You should hurry up and prepare."

The priests really obeyed the orders and acted. Ludwig, who was further angered, immediately ordered his men to draw their swords and then pushed them back with their shields.

"What do you mean? How dare you be rude to me?!"

Ludwig retorted: "Just a small setback made you lose your fighting spirit? Where is your creed? You are not worthy of being an archbishop." After that, he lowered his head like a hungry wolf and said, "I can't find it now. As for the enemy's main force, your Cologne is in the south. If you leave, it will be a betrayal of me. I will capture Cologne immediately, install a new archbishop myself, and then ask the Holy See for permission."

"How dare you!?" The archbishop was anxious, his squinted eyes as wide as bells.

"Or, I can find someone to take you to the woods. Later people will learn that the Archbishop of Cologne died in a Norman sneak attack. You... think I dare not?"

There is nothing more ruthless than a king. Ludwig had just executed some people who were unfavorable in transporting supplies, so he...

The archbishop had no choice but to give in, gritted his teeth and asked reluctantly: "What do you want me to do?"

"Preach to all the dead. Don't talk about retreat again!"

"Alright alright……"

In today's era, the Pope owns the Papal States, and many dioceses in Frankland are autonomous. All of this is certainly the basis of power for the Pope to control and manage the entire Western and Central Europe in the future. In today's era, they are not strong enough to order kings to surrender.

The Frankish monarchs with large armies could force the Pope to obey their orders, so in Ludwig's view, the Archbishop of Cologne was his special vassal and should be beaten if he disobeyed.

All the bodies found were buried. Although the action was hasty, the deceased received final care from the archbishop and his party. People believed that the souls of the deceased went to heaven.

The town of Osnabrück seemed like a cursed place. In the end, all the troops gathered here only rested until early morning, and the whole army started to move again.

The poor Sorbians, who only had five thousand people, were now reduced to a large herd of cattle and horses.

On a new day, they, who had not yet had enough rest, continued to move towards the north, pulling a large amount of baggage as oxen and horses.

Ludwig was furious, and his soldiers felt that they had suffered a great humiliation. All the Franks were vengeful and vowed to punish their enemies.

The warrior's anger was stirred up, and this was a ball of fire! If you listen to the Archbishop's words and retreat at this time, such fire will come back to bite you.

Out of selfish motives, Ludwig's self-esteem was seriously tarnished and he wanted revenge. For the sake of national stability, his East Francia must expel the barbarians and despicable rebels who invaded its borders.

He formulated a new action plan, saying that when the army arrived at Bremen Ferry, the entire army would have a good rest here, and immediately begin to rebuild the city of Bremen and restore its strategic position as an important northern town.

He even offered the title of earl as a prize.

"Which of you will work the hardest in future actions? A lower-level noble may become the Earl of Bremen! I will investigate you."

Of course, there is no strict military knighthood system in Europe today, but it is human nature to reward those who have meritorious service in battle and grant them titles and land.

Nobles who work hard to defeat barbarians and traitors will have the opportunity to be promoted to earls. Even if they want to be earls in remote areas in the north, the temptation is really huge.

Ludwig then asked the army to advance as fast as possible. Although the straight Roman roads were conducive to marching, it was still very harsh to require the infantry to march 20 kilometers a day. First of all, the Sorbians naturally began to fall behind due to physical problems. For this reason, the Frank soldiers used whips and branches to beat these two-legged cows and horses, which made them miserable but they could only endure it.

From arriving at the town of Osnabruck to the vanguard of the army arriving steadily at Bremen, it would take four full days to maintain a constant speed.

These four days were a good day for "free activities" for the two Ross troops.

But he said that Arik's squadron came well prepared this time, and he was eager to arrive at the ruins of Bremen and encounter the Frankish army, and have a good fight with the advantage of the ships. Burning down bridges is naturally the biggest task. He and his brothers still want to kill as many enemies as possible and prove that they are real men.

The squadron did not encounter any obstruction. After arriving at the mouth of the river, they rowed the long boat and cooperated with the help of the north wind to successfully reach their destination.

Right here, they suddenly saw a fluttering Ross flag and a blue and white patterned buckler stuck here.

Arik, who was standing at the bow of the ship, was confused: "Fisk, has your kid run away? Is he free hunting again?"

As soldiers landed one after another, more traces were exposed.

Some brothers handed the wooden board they found to Arik, and all they saw were carved on it were phrases in traditional rune script.

Looking at these simple message boards, Arik laughed lightly: "Okay. Our cavalry has gone to the south to hunt. Don't worry about them. Let's demolish the bridge now."

Then someone asked, if the bridge is demolished now, will it not hinder the return of our cavalry?

Arik had this concern, but he was relieved when he thought about the crazy fighting of the cavalry this year. This is not the first time that Fisk's cavalry has performed an independent mission. This group of guys is also extremely autonomous, just like free bears hunting the prey they target as they please.

Arik is actually a little jealous. The young Fisk is only twenty-two years old, and his record in this year's large-scale war is too outrageous. Looking back, he was not so ferocious when he was twenty-two years old.

Having said that, real old Russians are adventurous. The two hundred cavalry may not necessarily play a huge role in possible large-scale battles in the future. They may be able to achieve greater results by robbing Frankish territory like "land pirates."

He had no time to take care of Fisk's cavalry who had disappeared. He had just arrived at the ruins of Bremen and noticed that the bridge repaired by the previous enemy was angry again.

"Smash it with me!" he ordered, and the brothers took long-handled double-edged axes and began to chop the wood standing on the bridge piers...

But destroying the wood does not take a lot of time. The key is to destroy the stone piers on the river.

The soldiers either pushed the stones into the cold river with their bare hands, or smashed them with long-handled hammers or axes, but the effect was not good.

These bridge piers standing in the river are made of large stones, stacked on top of each other by gravity, and cannot be washed away by the river in summer.

Although it was cold in early winter, the soldiers rode a long boat across the target stone pier, climbed directly onto the stone pier and wielded a sledgehammer to smash it. They even took off their shirts one after another, exposing their upper bodies covered with golden chest hair, and swung their hammers savagely, while the cold wind cooled down their feats.

However, these hard and heavy granites can be easily smashed by a few strong men with a sledgehammer.

Arik didn't know that people a long time ago laid a large number of large stones in the river to serve as bridge piers. His desire to destroy most of the stone piers in just a day or two was obviously a wishful thinking. He even hoped that Rurik would come and take a look in person. It wasn't that he didn't work hard, it was because there were too many rocks and they were too hard.

He wanted to concentrate his efforts on destroying individual stone piers, but his foothold was weak and the destruction was really slow.

Even though it's a grind, I still have to do as much damage as possible.

At least the entire bridge's timbers have been completely destroyed. This is the second time Arik has destroyed timbers. He is very experienced and can just pull the timbers into the river with boat traction ropes.

The only thing is to destroy one or two stone piers and wait.

The Russian army's camps were all on the north bank of the Weser River, next to the so-called ruins of Bremen. They did not build any tents on the south bank because that was the battlefield before. Fearing that the Frank cavalry would suddenly appear and attack them desperately, the brothers were afraid that something serious would happen and they would not be able to escape.

Arik's decision was correct, but the Frank army arrived earlier than he expected.

It started with the scout cavalry, who saw some large ships anchored on the Weser River, with Bremen behind them.

The scouts did not reveal their true identities. They took a quick look and quickly withdrew to inform King Ludwig of their horrific sightings.

After hearing the news, Ludwig frowned with fear and frustration.

He was surprised that the enemy's legendary ship was already waiting in the Weser River, and was afraid that the enemy was deliberately destroying the bridge.

Although the Rus are Normans, they must be the smartest Normans.

Even so, Ludwig still sighed: "What a smart enemy. I knew you would destroy the bridge, but fortunately I brought back the materials to repair the bridge."

He immediately ordered the entire army to march and frightened the enemy with his powerful momentum!

As a result, the huge Frankish army, accompanied by a large number of cross flags, exposed its ferocious fangs in the slightly hazy weather of early winter.

Arik, who was originally relaxed, couldn't calm down now.

He became furious and immediately ordered the horn to be blown, and the resting soldiers were put into combat readiness.

Nowadays, the Weser River is entering the peak of its dry season, and the width of the Bremen section has been greatly reduced to less than a hundred meters. So when the Russian army went upstream, the big ships were sailing in the center of the river, and only the long boats were rowing, ignoring all troubles.

To the naked eye, the river channel, which is less than a hundred meters wide, is already quite narrow, and arrows fired by the Franks' ordinary war bows can easily be fired to the opposite side.

The cross flag was flying, and a large number of heavily armored warriors showed a very clear metallic luster. Even though there was no bright sunshine now, Arik and many Ross warriors noticed this unprecedented spectacle.

"I'm not dazzled!"

Arik rubbed his eyes vigorously and found that not only was his vision normal, but he could now see more clearly.

More and more leather-armored soldiers walked out of the road. These people were literally covered in iron. They were uniformly dressed and even had the same shields.

Even more striking was the appearance of the heavy cavalry, who were still covered in armor and quite gorgeously dressed.

Seeing is believing, Arik was sure that what he saw was the enemy's main force.

He didn't have the slightest fear, and after the initial shock, he showed excitement.

He called on his men to join the battle immediately, although the Russian squadron was a small army responsible for demolishing bridges, and its total number was less than that of a Frankish infantry standard. Obviously the enemy did not have a single boat, and the existence of the Weser River had given the Russian army an advantage. The battle will definitely evolve into a unilateral attack by the Russian army relying on its tactical advantage.

The elite troops of the Frankish army were ordered to line up on the river bank. Ludwig wanted to show off his grandeur and kill the Normans with the majesty of his illustrious army. He also issued a ruthless death threat to them.

From Arik's point of view, he doesn't care who is in front of him, everyone is arranging their formation step by step. Doesn't this give the Russian army a chance?

Then, under the anxious gaze of the Frankish soldiers, those large ships began to move strangely. Of course, the soldiers had never seen such a big ship before, and everyone was watching the spectacle.

Arik just ordered the big ship to move to the south to seize the advantageous shooting position, and then anchored on the river, forcibly creating multiple forts protected by the cold river water.

"Oil all the slingshots! Use cast-iron bullets! Bull trebuchets! Use rocks!"

He issued the order step by step, and was about to bombard the Frank fool who was busy arranging to show off his power...