Chapter 50： The axe-bearing lion Hafgen, the new leader of the Danes

For the Mindya, they need the southern pastures to supply production.

For the Danes, they not only need a ranch, but also intend to unite with the Mind Sub-League, at least to recruit some of the franchise tribes to their alliance. Of course, this kind of behavior is not easy, because neither side can tolerate this kind of behavior.

The behavior of the Danes digging the wall aggravated the conflict between the two sides.

Since relatively "peaceful" means could not achieve the wishes of the Danish Alliance, finally at the spring meeting of the Danish Tribal Alliance in 828 AD, as many as twelve tribes attended the meeting, and they rushed to select the strongest Robard tribe. The leader Hafgen becomes the leader of the alliance.

The Lobad tribe, the so-called Lobad, means "the big red ship" in Old Norse.

Because the main body of the Lobad tribe is very close to the Øresund, they have a very advantageous geographical location and relatively developed commercial activities. Naturally, their tribe has no strength.

The tribe traded a large amount of madder, which they used to dye linen cloth, and also used it to decorate the battle ship.

There is a huge long boat with as many as one hundred people rowing. It is decorated with an exaggerated fierce bow, which is a dragon head. It is coated with madder fuel as if the dragon opened its blood basin. It is believed that with the appearance of this decoration, many enemies will be frightened and flee.

It is called the "Red Dragon" and it is also a symbol of the wealth and power of the tribal leader. In a sense, it is the "Crown".

Hafgen is a madman with ideas. In the duel of the tribe, he beheaded all the challengers, and the whole tribe worshiped his mighty power.

At the meeting of the tribal alliance, some people questioned his strength.

And Hafgen did not hesitate to propose the ancient tradition of the alliance-duel.

refused because of fear of death?

Do not! Rejection is a coward, and the coward will be expelled from the tribe.

Basically, the doubters named by Hafgen have no right to refuse.

The so-called duel, the leaders of the two alliances each sent a warrior to participate, and even the leader himself went into battle.

Two warriors will have a life and death duel and end with the death of the loser. The death of the warrior represents the failure of the leader and the failure of the tribe to which he belongs.

The old leader will not go into battle stupidly, he will send the bravest man in the tribe.

The brave people are also very helpful, because they won the victory, their personal prestige will increase, and it is very possible to become a new leader with this qualification.

Hafgen would not stay out of the way to remotely control a warrior to fight for him.

He is a man of self-confidence, and his personal strength is also obvious to all.

Hafgen has very strong muscles, and it is rumored that this person can eat a roast lamb in one meal. He always wields a lumbering axe that is not sharp, not to mention that the axe is not sharp. With brute force, he easily cut down a thick-mouthed tree.

With brute force like this, it is not a problem to chop down a big tree, so it is no problem to chop down an enemy.

Thanks to this brute force, he won the support of many tribes without much ingenuity. Because they formed the small families of the tribe, after seeing Hafgen's ferocity, they were very willing to submit to his banner, thus gaining a sense of security.

Even if some tribes are suspicious of Hafgen, the loss of a large number of families under their command is real.

Because Hafgen is indeed the kind of legendary warrior!

In any life-and-death duel, he personally went into battle. While he was holding a battle axe, he was only wearing a plain linen waistcoat on his upper body.

He deliberately showed his strong arms and the golden hair on them.

He is also a man with a perfect beard. He naturally has multiple wives and concubines because of his martial arts, so his beard is also woven into a unique braid by his own woman.

Through a lot of brute force, one tribe after another on the Jutland Peninsula is willing to identify with such a leader.

If this person is just a reckless man, he will not make much noise in his own field.

But this guy is very ambitious!

The Hafgens gave him the nickname "Golden Retriever", but he himself preferred the nickname "Lion" given to him by the Franks.

First of all, Hafgen had never seen an African lion. Through the Frankish businessman who crossed the border bravely, he knew his nickname and the source of the nickname.

In the far south, the extremely hot world, there is a fierce beast that is the overlord there. The characteristic of this beast is that it has an amazing beard, and its terrifying fangs and claws can easily kill people.

After all, these Frankish merchants are only doing business. They don’t care what their master is, "Augustus’s successor" or the new leader of the Danes, "Golden Lion". As long as they can do business on their land, they can do less. The payment of taxes, everything is not a problem.

The Danish tribes on Jutland are getting stronger and stronger, and they are more and more able to distance themselves from their relatives in Scandinavia. On the one hand, it is these Frankish merchants.

In the ninth century, they were Frankish merchants. A few hundred years later, they were German businessmen.

They even established a free city in Hamburg, which is on the border between Shinra and the Kingdom of Denmark, and established a business alliance with the oppressed Saxons.

No matter how the times change, a businessman is a businessman. Moreover, in the new era, because of the new science and technology, the merchants of the Hanseatic League have discovered an amazing way of making money, and this way of making money has also been used as a standard by the industrial countries after millennia—imported rough products are refined. Processing.

Even as early as the ninth century, Frankish merchants knew that the north produced a lot of iron.

What attracted these Frankish merchants to venture into the realm of the Vikings were the local specialties: animal fur, pig iron, and copper.

Merchants also secretly transported horses, linen cloth, and a large number of Western European handmade products.

This trade route has always existed in peacetime, and it will exist for a long time.

With the introduction of the steelmaking method from India to Shinra, the Hanseatic League merchants immediately began to import large-scale northern pig iron or directly shipped iron ore, processed them into steel in their workshops, and then sold them to Denmark and Sweden. One-to-one prices soared six times.

Finally, the King of Sweden learned from the pain and recruited blacksmiths from the German region to serve him. After making great efforts, he finally laid the foundation for the ordnance of Gustav II to dominate the European Union.

That's all hundreds of years later.

In the ninth century, even the Franks, their iron smelting craftsmanship was quite bad.

Of course, the iron smelting process in the Roman era hardly developed, which led to the successor Franks and many other Germanic tribes. Even if they formed a feudal country, they lacked the ability to forge fine iron.

In contrast, the Danes and thinking demi people who are as backward in craftsmanship are probably the blessing of the so-called Odin!

The iron ore they discovered is a particularly high-quality vein. The quality of the iron ore is really good.

The battle axe made of these iron ore does not need to be sharp to break most Viking swords.

After all, a blacksmith who had to barely forge with bad iron smelting skills, its carbon content is too high, which leads to poor flexibility of the iron sword, and the blade is easy to break and bend after a fight.

Especially for flexibility issues, don't think about trying to block, hacking too hard can cause breakage.

Its only advantage is that it can be woven into chain mail after being made into iron wires.

The terrible iron smelting technology in the ninth century was popular throughout Europe, but the swordsmen were smart. Whether they are Franks or Vikings, they always use iron swords to adopt stab tactics, which in a sense is like holding an extended spearhead in their hands. Not to mention, the damage brought about by this stab tactic is even more terrifying.

But for the vast number of Vikings who are good at fighting heads-up, they always carry an axe. It is a tool for cutting trees, a tool for repairing ships, and the most fierce weapon for fighting.

With a battle axe in his hand, Hafgen is not afraid of opponents in chain mail.

All the tribes, including Hafgen's own Robard "Red Ship" tribe, also have a group of masters in armor.

chain mail can resist the attacks of bows and arrows to a large extent, and can basically resist the spurs of sharp swords and spearheads, making it impossible to get close to the skin and flesh, only causing a bruise, and ultimately life is saved.

But the chain mail cannot withstand the heavy attack of a blunt weapon. In front of the battle axe whose main purpose is logging, the chain mail is of little significance.

I am afraid that throughout the Middle Ages, blunt weapon attacks are insoluble. Even if it is a plate-armored warrior dressed as a can, the enemy's axe and chisel into the battle are as easy as a can opener to open the can.

Holding a battle axe and becoming the leader of the Danish tribal alliance, Jutland ushered in a fierce man.

What is the ambition of "Golden Lion" Hafgen?

is very simple!

Inherit in the footsteps of the predecessors, continue to attack Britain to obtain the gold stored in the monastery there, take the cattle and sheep there, and even take the people there to become slaves.

He is very happy to show his strength to outsiders.

Those thinking sub-humans are their own people, but they are not only unwilling to submit to Danish subordinates, but also unwilling to hand over the other half of the pasture. Isn't this behavior an offense to yourself? The alliance of the thinking demihumans is absurd, they must be disintegrated, and all the tribes must be subordinate to their own subordinates!

However, it is not anxious to solve the problem of the Mind Demi Alliance, because it is not only Mind Demi, there are also a large number of Norwegians in the "Road to the North" in western Scandinavia, and they will also be included. of.

Hafgen’s biggest dream is to integrate all the Gnostic-speaking tribes during his lifetime, and after building a strong force, he doesn’t need to engage in sneak attacks and looting.

The battle axe will hit the whole of Britain, where it will become the territory of oneself and one's own heirs.

The battle axe will also hit the Frankish kingdom. Since the leader of a tribe can get the title of "Augustus", why can't I, Hafgen?

Although Hafgen doesn’t know what the meaning of "Augustus" is, in short, according to Frankish merchants, the so-called "Augustus" is the only place that governs all places where footsteps can be trampled and all ships can only navigate. The leader is the greatest leader.

Hafgen is approaching forty years old, and he is still powerful and confident in the future.

But on the road to realizing one's ambitions, we must first solve many difficult problems.

At present, his first job is to eliminate those who question and oppose the Lobad tribe in the tribal alliance, and to eliminate them with the most resolute means to consolidate his rule.

After completing this great event, I went to conquer the Wende who also surrendered to the Franks and began to erode the Danish territory with the support of Frank.

After dealing with the rabble on the southern border, the strategic operation to unify all the Gnostic-speaking tribes must begin!