Chapter 269： Brewing before the decisive battle

Otto heard the enemy standing on the fortress not far away laughing, and some unintelligible language. Needless to say, it must be a vicious mockery.

He has seen too much, it doesn't matter to let the dying person have a mouthful, and looking at the current situation of the Salmon Lord tribe, he feels that his plan has been successful.

The Ross people did not use force any more, and everyone looked at the tribal people sitting on the snow with their heads down.

Kaijas almost crawled up to Otto in a desperate look, his hand continued to cover the **** ear wound, and the other hand kept holding an arrow. When he saw Otto, he was crying desperately. After Jeflo's translation, he knew that he was not only accusing the gray squirrel tribe of the strength, but also complaining about why the Rus did not invest in troops.

Otto asked calmly: "Didn't you say that the Grey Squirrel Tribe is a group of fools? Are you not a feud with them? Why? Give you a chance for revenge, you complained that I didn't help?"

Kehas said in pain, he faltered with an arrow in his ears.

"Is this your ear?" Rurik asked.

Kaijas immediately cried and said, "My little master, we have miscalculated! The enemy is very strong, and they have very strong archers."

"Don't listen to him nonsense, he's just a coward." Otto said with contempt.

Rurik looked at Otto's serious old face, and then at Kejas's teary face. "Dad, I believe the enemy is very strong. So when we attack, we must be careful."

"But this man discarded all our ladders."

Rurik shook his head: "Dad, it turns out that those ladders are not easy to use. It seems that the enemy has reinforced their walls with ice and snow, so we don't want to climb the wall and attack."

"So, what shall we do?" Otto asked his son.

"Cut down a big tree, or prepare a lot of bonfires. Today we can't continue fighting, we need to rest. Tomorrow we'd better use the big tree to knock open their doors, if not, we will set fire to their wooden doors! What we have is Ways to deal with them!"

Otto nodded as he heard: "You still have the most tactics."

After the praise, Otto looked at the injured Kejas: "Throw away your ears and count the people you survived. I will reward your people with oatmeal and dried meat. And you, I will give you a special gift. Go and rest now!"

In this way, the battle on the first day is over, but the battle is only the beginning.

The memory of the Russ has not been defeated, and the young warrior is indulged in the joy of sweeping the Gotland stronghold last year. Now that I encounter a nail, there is no reason not to beat it.

The victorious Mechasta was not at all easy, because the Ruths were very hateful, so they lit a bonfire and set up camp at the edge of their bow and arrow range. The Ross people surrounded the village, and a large number of bonfires surrounded the village, which made the tribe of gray squirrels after victory not able to root any joy of victory. ,

To make matters worse, for a victory, all tribesmen fired more than a thousand arrows, including at least a hundred iron cluster arrows.

If the archers lose their arrows, they can only fight with stone axes and spears. If you venture out to pick up arrows, you will surely be ambushed by the enemy.

No one wants to risk leaving the wall that protects them, and the reality is that Rurik makes his mercenaries lie on the snow, and the crossbow becomes an excellent ambush weapon, which can be shot in a prone position for the first time.

The people of the Grey Squirrel tribe are under great pressure. They only have more than 3,000 arrows left. Due to the lack of combat effectiveness, all tribal women who know how to shoot arrows are required to be archers. The women's consciousness is very high, they know that fighting is to protect themselves. There are more archers, and the limited number of arrows attracts less than 50 arrows for each archer. If the enemy makes a few more attacks, there will really be no spare arrows.

On the contrary, the operation of the Roths during the day can be described as doing multiple things in one fell swoop.

More than 50 corpses fell on the battlefield, and only 95 of the Salmon Lord Burakumen returned, and many of them were injured.

The gray squirrel tribe also suffered more than 30 casualties. Almost all of them were hit when the archers of both sides attacked at close range in the final stage. Compared with the Russ coalition forces, after the daytime battle, the Grey Squirrel tribe also won a terrible victory in a sense. After all, the men who can fight are one hundred and fifty. This is good, but men who can fight are in their early 100s.

Of course organized women. Are women engaged in the fight? Even Metzasta himself felt unreliable.

How happy was Metzasta when he learned of the casualties? He thinks tomorrow is a big battle! He didn't dare to play up the atmosphere of terror in the tribe, and could only tell everyone that "we won a big victory." He also asked the wizards of the tribe to do a divination. In order to stabilize the people's hearts, the wizards claimed that a huge reinforcement army would arrive soon, probably before the sun sets tomorrow.

Everyone believes in wizards and can only take care of the wounded, men, women, and children to guard their homes.

The situation in the Ross people is much better here, and Kejas also got his own reward-a bottle of spirits.

It was late at night, and Rurik, who was sitting around the campfire, was a little puzzled of his father's determination.

"Dad, why do you give them wine? Why do you give them meat and granola. Don't you hate them? Or is it because I am actually their master?"

Otto shook his head: "Do you think I am kind?"

"Yes it is."

"No! I'm not kind, this is called strategy."

"Strategy?" Rurik couldn't help laughing, he couldn't think of how many tactics his father could have. "Why do you see it?" he asked deliberately.

"Oh!" Otto looked at the torch that was lit on the enemy's fortress not far away, and asked, "Are all the ambushes ready? Ah, I have to rest in armor tonight."

"It's all ready."

As an old father, Otto told his son: "Okay, I tell you now, their bravest person is dead, and the rest cannot be said to be not brave, they will at least be very obedient. I have already told that. Guys, we will attack together. If we prepare properly, tomorrow is the day of the decisive battle. A bottle of wine proves my sincerity. I don't believe that the guy who has lost one ear will refuse."

Rurik understood: "Dad, in fact, you still need them to have a proof of loyalty. Just like my mercenaries have participated in the battle, now you don't doubt them anymore."

"You are also very clever." Otto kindly grabbed his son's golden ponytail: "I think it over. When everything is over, I will announce that a man like Jeflo is a member of our Ross tribe. I don't care about him. What kind of ethnicity is it? In short, we have made military exploits for us and loyal to the leader. This is the Rus I need."

Rurik was really pleasantly surprised. He smiled and said, "But such a person still cannot participate in the dividends of the spoils."

"Of course. Remember, they are the new Roths, first and foremost your servants. The rewards to the servants depend on the master's will. Go to sleep. You showed the calm and decisiveness of a good fighter today, remember. Living here is still a battle of fate. We must break through the enemy’s village tomorrow and conquer them!"

Rurik nodded: "I only have one request."

"Say it."

"Those who kneel down and are willing to be servants should spare their lives."

"Okay! I promised." Otto replied readily.

This night, Rurik slept in leather. Many warriors could not remove their armor, but fell asleep after putting on a layer of leather.

The soldiers slept very shallowly, often still holding the hilt in their hands. The so-called when the enemy's sneak attack alarm came from the guards, all the soldiers could jump up and go into combat immediately.

The Ross people gave the enemy a higher estimate, but the enemy did not launch a night attack.

The people of the gray squirrel tribe unanimously chose to be conservative. The darkness made them terrifying. The large number of bonfires lit by the Varangans made many people believe that their victory might not be worth mentioning, and the real decisive battle had not yet begun.

Victory did not boost everyone's morale. Burakumen, men, women and children of Alexander, only the most naive child did not know what was happening, and then he nestled in his parents' arms to rest. The others waited, almost staying up all night.

The long night gradually passed, and at dawn, the tired tribal warriors took up their weapons one after another, some listlessly boarded the scaffolding behind the wall.

The world was still cold, and the exhausted tribal warriors saw that the sparse pine forest not far away was sending strange agitation.

"What's going on?"

"Is the earth shaking? Is there a big tree shaking?"

"No! Go report to the leader!"

The early warrior broke into Mechasta's house, and the sudden alarm made the leader think that the Varangans had attacked in an all-round way.

"The forest has become weird? What stupid thing to say!" Metzasta was very suspicious.

Only when he himself got on the wall did he notice the strange scene from the enemy camp.

Ross people, what are they doing?

Early in the morning, the sleepy Rurik was awakened by the cheers of the warriors. He soon saw that some tribesmen were using the most traditional Viking logging technique, trying to cut down a large pine tree with a straight trunk.

It is indeed not the largest pine tree. As a siege hammer, the size is acceptable.

The thing about cutting the tree is simply that the blacksmith Kawei who accompanied the army personally held the big axe, he cut a deep dent in the trunk, and then hacked a smaller dent on the other side. A wooden wedge smashed into the small dent, and as the big hammer turned into a forest axe in the reverse direction, Kawe beat the wooden wedge frantically amid the rhythmic shouts of the warriors.

After dozens of beatings, the towering pine trees became more skewed, and finally broke and fell, making a terrifying loud noise. The earth was also trembling strongly. It not only shook both the enemy and us, but also shook all the accumulation of nearby pine branches. Snow even stunned the hiding squirrel.

A large number of gray squirrel tribe fighters gathered on the wall, and they still don't know what happened.

An extremely bad premonition floated in Mezzasta's heart, "Are they cutting down trees? Are they trying to break our wall? Or..."

Suddenly realizing that something was wrong, he immediately called on people to reinforce the city wall, whether it was stone, ice or wood, or even the corpses of the dead of his own tribe who had been frozen into icy corpses. In short, everything that could block the gate was nothing. Becomes extremely important.

The Ross people spent almost a whole day making their own siege hammer, which is actually a pine tree.

Because of the loss of all the ladders, the Roths had to make new ones with the pine resources at their fingertips.

Many people, including Rurik, feel that today is the day of the decisive battle, but the clever commander needs to consider the failure experience of the Salmon Lord tribe.

Although it was a pity, Otto succeeded in calming his restless subordinates.

Here, many warriors who participated in the attack on the Gotland were the first to agree with the leader's determination.

It is all because of a vote of guest carpenters, these people handle the axe used for slashing, and carefully process their own siege hammers. Everyone believes that since the ladder can't solve the problem, a crowd of people holding the big tree slams through the enemy's city gate to recreate an Arik victory.

Throughout the day, the villages of the Grey Squirrel Tribe were surrounded by the Rus.

The Roths are just outside the city wall, they are standing outside the range of their bows and arrows, holding various weapons or standing or walking.

Although there is no words, the actions of the Ruths are to say: "I am not good at trying to escape."

The atmosphere of fear in the village is spreading, especially when the tribal wizards claimed that the reinforcements arrived in Japan today. Now the sun is going to set. Would those so-called allies choose to drive at night?

More people believe that the messenger they sent has already been intercepted, and everyone does not think that those tribes will really fight for the gray squirrel tribe. Some people even believe that those tribes probably don't think that there will be Varanga landing in the interior to rob and destroy.

The wizard's prophecy completely failed as night fell.

Suddenly, "we are abandoned" remarks raged. The tribal warrior's military spirit was unstable, and Mezzasta did not expect to kill one or two crow's mouth to stabilize morale.

He shouted in the village in vain: “Don’t be afraid! We still have walls! We still have bows! We don’t need any allies! Let them attack, let’s shoot them with bows! The Varangans are robbers and they die. Some people withdrew."

But, who would be so optimistic? Tonight is exactly the same as the night before. In the dark forest outside the wall, a huge bonfire lit up again.

Just standing on the wall and seeing these bonfires, the sentry trembled.

It can be said that the "Bonfire Suspect Tactics" that Rurik thought of was too useful for the simple gray squirrel tribe of Cowen. If it hadn't been for the wall surrounding the entire village to give them the last point of confidence, the spirit of the entire tribe would have collapsed.

Of course, if they didn't have wall facilities from the beginning, the Rus would not stay in the woods deliberately, but would attack as soon as they arrived.

A new day has arrived. On this day, the sky is overcast and the climate is getting colder and colder, as if a cold current is approaching, the weather is bad, and the defensive gray squirrel tribesmen are in a very bad mood.

Because just outside the range of their bows and arrows, a large number of Varangians wearing metal helmets seemed to finally launch a fierce attack.

"What is that, is it some shield?" Mezzasta squinted and noticed the strange equipment of the enemy camp.

But what happened next was the most surprising.

Before the battle, Otto felt that his Rurik would be able to give some good gradual progress, and the vast number of soldiers also believed in the smart "Odin Blesser", and he must have received divine enlightenment when he slept at night.

To be honest, Rurik was a bit embarrassed. He called his technological inventions "God's Revelation" one after another. The so-called letting the people believe that these technologies are reasonable and sacred also enhanced his sense of mystery.

Rurik put forward some plans to siege the city. Otto did not even think about it, so he followed these requirements.

Why should you doubt it? Otto believed that his son's plan must come from "God's Revelation." He believed so that other tribesmen would completely agree with it.

The real battle has broken out!

Before the battle, Otto held his sword high, with his big feet on the snow, and his solemn eyes fixed on his equally dignified warriors.

Suddenly, his sword pointed directly at the wall not far away: "Brothers! Let us smash through the gates and seize the treasures that belong to you! Fur! Slaves! It's all yours!"

The Ross Warriors began to beat their shields and collectively let out a rhythmic roar, giving the enemy a strong mental stimulation.

Mezzasta on the city wall greeted his tribe: "Damn it! It's about to fight. Don't be afraid, don't be nervous, shoot them with our arrows!"

That was the case, but Mezzasta's own legs were shaking.

They are forest hunters after all, and their beliefs are not like those of the Russ. Kewen people are keen on hunting and trading. They can be very good explorers, but they have many natural disadvantages in the most barbarous wars. At this point, the Grey Squirrel Tribe has no choice but to passively fight.

"Brothers! Attack!"

Otto gave an order, and the Ross people began to move, a special offensive formation that stood out from the hidden riverside pine forest.

But to the soldiers of the Grey Squirrel tribe, the way the Varangians attacked is really strange.

Now, there seem to be three big templates moving on the snow. After the plank, they are all Ross people.