Chapter 441： Assault on Slitomo Harbor

Gotland is a large island 130 kilometers east-west, and its widest point is less than 50 kilometers.

Its geographical location is unique, and it is almost surrounded by huge fishing grounds. The prosperous fishing industry made this island once host a huge population of 20,000 people.

Fishermen and businessmen from all walks of life gather here, and the fish they produce are sold far away.

Gotland has a large population, and people from all over the world gather here. There is no strong tribe with a common root. There are only more than a dozen large settled families and more than a dozen small fishing villages.

If there were no wars, life in Gotland would be relatively peaceful.

For so many years, only the fishermen in Gotland attacked outsiders who broke into the fishing grounds. Their attacks frequently succeeded, but it was the conflict with the Ross people ten years ago, and they tasted the taste of failure.

At that time, Otto led the Ross fleet, and it accidentally broke into the Gotland fishing grounds because of the fog of the fleet.

The rebellious fishermen take it for granted that they are fishery competitors from the north, or simply attackers.

At least ten years ago, Gotland announced its separation from the Svealand Alliance, and the elders of the major families voted to cooperate with the Danes. To be fair, Gotland is a natural way to do business with Jutland as a quick way. They are backing an alliance for greater interests. Liangzi has forged it.

Since the Gotlanders have backed the alliance, the Ross people who are part of the alliance are equivalent to having a privateer permit. The remote Ross people ate and attacked the Gotlanders, but the trekking fleet was attacked and the leader's brother died.

After that, Otto turned over his old account and suddenly became the most active in attacking Gotland.

In recent years, the continuous attacks of the Ross people have caused the Gotland people to vomit blood for three liters.

The islanders have gathered from all directions, so if you encounter an insurmountable crisis, you will have to evacuate the island.

However, not many big families are really willing to give up the business they have run for more than ten or decades. Visby has become a city and it shouldn't be abandoned.

Many islanders have chosen to evacuate. They are unable to fish in the abundant waters of the north of the island. Going south to the Öre fishery is to grab fish with Danish fishermen, which is indeed a contradiction.

Perhaps the carrying capacity of the island has reached its limit, and the tragic situation of the settlement on the south of the island being looted by the Rus has made other settlements really at risk.

There are currently two major settlements on the island, Visby on the west coast of the island, and Witset in the northern fjord of the island.

Visby, the original meaning of "Mill of Sacrifice", is the most densely populated place due to its special status.

Witset, originally meant "white sand", because the fjord is full of white sea sand.

The Baisha Port has been weakening for the past three years, and a large number of people have migrated to Visby. At this point, the population of Visby once expanded to nearly 10,000!

Severe population pressure forced a large number of locals to leave Gotland. No, some people went to Kalmar, to the Danish territory, even to Oslo, to Scandinavia, which faces the Atlantic Ocean. Bays.

As the Ross people started an all-out war, Gotland had already appeared to be strong on the outside, and the big families inside had quietly suspicioned each other, and the feeling of nostalgia for the island was also diminishing.

Yes, on an island that can't get huge wealth, why should a real businessman continue to settle for a long time?

The island’s population has plummeted to less than 15,000, and a lot of strong men have been lost, and the remaining people are even more scattered.

Frustration forces people to stay away from the military threat of the Russ. People living near the sea are worried that a fleet of ships will suddenly be killed and attacked.

Their worries have finally become a reality!

Like a long ship army of wolves, Arik directly caught up with the four fishing boats that were fleeing desperately.

He didn't have any dullness. First, his soldiers used a crossbow to complete the precision shooting (already a veteran who had been focusing on shooting at sea for more than two years), and then the ship took the ship to complete the final blow.

The Warriors First Banner team had no intention of fighting, and they kept fighting violently. The temperament like a broken bamboo had already scared the fishermen on the shore to flee.

The man grabbed the hand of the woman and the child, and started to run away without holding almost anything.

Some people also decided to take some self-protection tools, as well as entanglement at home.

However, Arik was too fast. His warriors wore uniform clothes, a white-shirted warrior jumped off the boat, illuminated with the blue stripes of their classic Ross proprietary letter X, holding bright white and oiled steel swords and Shield, thinking of scaring the stupid person rushed.

The fisherman roared in horror: "It's the Ross! The **** Ross is here!"

Then came the screams of men and women, and the howls of children.

"Damn it, dare you call me damned?" Arik heard the warning screams, and he unceremoniously ordered: "Brothers, kill me! Kill all who dare to resist!"

This battle is just unreasonable, the well-equipped warrior flag team, the number of soldiers is more than the population of this fishing village!

Those who tried to resist were directly beheaded, including a group of people kneeling down and begging for mercy, and the red-eyed soldiers also beheaded directly.

If Rurik was present, he would have ordered his subordinates to converge and stop the meaningless killing of those who gave up resistance after witnessing such a tragedy.

However, Arik is now not so much slaying his father in the name of avenging his father, it is better to say that he has witnessed the blood, and the brutality erupting in the depths of his soul has been out of control.

The Ross people have lost control, and the battle has become one-sided.

Oh, this is no longer a battle, it's a classic Viking-style plunder.

The person who can escape in the first time has already taken his family madly towards the north. They throw away all kinds of unnecessary objects, just to escape faster. They only had one belief. They ran to the nearest Baisha Port, merged with the locals to inform them of the Rus’ landing, and then they armed themselves to fight the invaders and drove them out.

As for those slow to escape, they were all overtaken by the Rus, and then hacked and killed.

The blood dripping from the sword and axe can only make the eyes of the beast even more scarlet!

The soldiers' white gowns were not unexpectedly stained with the enemy's blood, and the blue and white tones added a strong bright red.

They dragged the captured woman's hair, doing things in broad daylight. No one accuses this at all. On the contrary, they are winners and conquerors. They claim that they can do whatever they want with losers!

Those women have lost their husbands and children, with empty eyes and endured insults, and their souls are dead.

There were also women who fought back, but unfortunately the axe they wield was so weak that they were immediately killed by the grumpy warrior.

A fishing village with less than four hundred people was conquered in an instant. More than one hundred people managed to escape, and most of the remaining people were killed.

When the Ross army began to use this as a landing point to land one after another, Rurik covered his mouth and saw what his army did, just like what the Mellaren people did more than a month ago.

There is no law to restrain these fighters, except that they will not use force against their own people, the others are the enemy, they use the most barbarous means to kill them, and then humiliate them.

Seeing that the Duke, the old brother and the others had all landed, the blood-colored Arik came with a mad smile carrying blood-stained swords.

"Look, Duke, I won a big victory."

"I've seen it all." Otto's deep eyes stared at the mess on the ground, his mood seemed to be unwavering, but his heart was a little dissatisfied.

"How do you think I am doing?"

"You won the first match, well done!"

Otto was still stupid, his actions really made Arik strange. He turned his head and slapped his chest again and asked his brother: "Liurik, look at me! I'm a real fighter! This battle was won easily. . What do you think? How do you compare to those of Mellaren?"

"Why kill even those women, look at the good things you do."

For a moment, Arik was stunned, and then said, "Oh, this kind of thing will inevitably happen in battle."

"So what about those?" Lurik's ears were full of men's smirks and women's wailing, and he pointed at a miserable woman.

"That." Arik twisted his body indifferently: "Brothers are suffocated on the island, and they will not be manipulated by their own people, but they can't be reunited with their wives. Anyway, these guys are enemies, so that the brothers are comfortable. Wouldn't it be great?"

"Stop it! Let them stop." Ruriek said righteously.

Arik suddenly changed his face: "Why? We are conquerors, we can do whatever we want."

"Listen to my orders!"

With his hands on his back, Rurik stood behind him with a firm face, Otto, clearly supporting him.

Arik is also not good at contending with the Duke's meaning, it is worth grabbing the hilt of the sword and hurriedly stopping his men.

Only more than 40 women and more than 20 children are still alive. This should have been an ordinary morning. As a result, the fishing village suffered a terrible blow.

These people in ragged clothes gathered together in horror and cried. Facing the crowd of white-robed Ross soldiers who came around, many of them fainted.

Arik wiped his face and leaned close to his brother: "I don't understand, you have to be kind to these enemies? I advise you not to do this. Being kind to them is hurting your brothers."

"No! I understand the truth, but you have done too much! I have to catch a group of prisoners and take them back. It's good for you. You assume that everyone is an enemy."

"Isn't it?" Arik asked deliberately.

"I want to conquer them, but I can't allow you to kill them all. I am the commander and you must support my resolution. Otherwise, I will let you and your people rest now."

"You! You can't..." Arik suddenly became angry, and now looking at his cute brother, he is already a little unlovable. Is this the so-called growth?

"I can. This is the power that the Duke has bestowed on me. If you don't listen to my command and let the soldiers come in chaos, I will let you stay on the landing site and rest."

"Alright alright……"

The woman whose clothes were torn, Rurik rewarded with some rags to hide her shame. He sent someone to grab a few women who seemed to be emotionally stable and asked about the reality of the settlement.

Those who are still alive are promised that as long as they cooperate, their lives will be guaranteed, and they will be sheltered by the Rus after the battle is over. In fact, it was announced that they would soon have a Ross husband, and the surviving children could continue to be raised.

It was just the hypocrisy of the conquerors, but they had no choice but to cooperate under the **** axe of the Rus.

After all, this fishing village is also a gathering of people from different sources. They usually help each other. Now that the disaster is approaching, isn’t it running away separately?

The woman confessed the name of this fishing village, Slithomn. Although the pronunciation is a bit strange, its original meaning is "a lowland in a crack".

Yes, this fishing village is indeed sandwiched between two mounds.

In addition, Rurik got two extremely crucial pieces of information!

Follow the gap between the mounds all the way to the north, and soon you will arrive at Baisha Port. If you walk south along the slope, go to the end of the **** and go west, you will reach Visby.

In order to survive, women decisively explained everything they knew. They were originally not of the same race as the people in Baisha Port and Visby. The large-scale offensive of the Rus was also related to the actions of the local businessmen.

They could not effectively resist the extremely powerful Ross people. They could see Ross ships everywhere in the small bay (they knew Ross’ signs), especially some of the huge ships that were really shocking, and these Ross people just showed their beast-like appearance. violent. They realized that even if the men assembled the entire island, Yue could not defeat the Ross army.

They transferred their anger to the businessmen who "started the war", especially the fat belly guys in Visby.

They proposed small conditions for cooperation.

Life is guaranteed, no longer insulted, and the dead are buried at sea.

These were just small requests, and Rurik didn't want to satisfy them.

In the first battle of Slitomo, the Ross people lost nothing. Hundreds of fishermen were killed. Their bodies were piled on some fishing boats. Large amounts of firewood were placed on top of some captured fish oil, and then they were pushed into the sea and set ablaze.

The large-scale landing of the Ross army began, but fortunately, Arik's men patronized and vented, before they had enough time to burn the fishermen's homes.

Many of the soldiers who landed now do not need to build their own shack.

The Slavic flag team carried a spear and landed in a long boat.

The Mälaren flag team landed peacefully with a wide range of weapons. For them, it was of great significance to board the Gotland island.

The staff of the Flag Shooting Team was the most complicated, with a group of boys and girls carrying crossbows and carrying arrows and quiveres on their backs. The battlefield between is so horrible, many people of course retreat. The feared are pushed forward by their companions, because now they don't have any cowardly power.

A large amount of food began to be transported, including the twenty reindeer and all the deer-keepers, which were rare to land on long boats.

Ten torsion slingshots mounted on two-wheeled trolleys completed the landing, accompanied by a large number of dedicated arrows and projectiles.

All kinds of crossbows need arrows to be carried in bundles, and now they fall on the beach like a wall.

It wasn't until the sun set that Ross had really finished moving the supplies. Vessels of various colors occupy all the sandy beaches of the small bay, and those cargo ships, especially the Aphrora, lay down their anchors and nailed them to the sea.

Now Slitomo is really lively, but unfortunately this human brain has nothing to do with the locals.

More than 3,000 people gathered here. The fishermen’s houses could only be used by elite soldiers and war commanders. Most people still had to set up their own tents, shacks, or directly sleep on the boats.

Rurik played a play for the captives. Before the deceased loaded the burning ship, Lumia put on the antler helmet and prayed to the soul of the deceased. What qualifications does the loser have to enjoy the sacrifice? Lumia's actions were only to accept Rurik's order, so as to show the captives that the Ross people were also humane, although Rurik felt a little hypocritical and redundant.

Anyway, it is an all-out war, and hypocrisy is meaningless.

Those captured women have indeed not been violated again, but Rurik must consider the feelings of his soldiers, especially the elite troops. He gave the women a free choice: "Find a husband right now, so that you can still be protected by a man in a place invisible to my eyes. We Ruth will not hurt our brothers. Woman."

Rurik looks like a boy, are his words credible? Of course believable! All his decisions were endorsed by the old fellow Otto.

The women did not hesitate to make a compromise, and their new man declared sovereignty to him that night, causing a crowd of Ross soldiers who watched the show to patronize and talk coldly.

After a long voyage, everyone finally landed on the island. Although they knew the way to Visby, the captured woman was willing to lead the way. The troops are not firmly established at the moment, and rash attacks may have bad results. The troops need two or three days of recuperation and reorganization. Similarly, the Ross people also need to allow enough time for the enemy to assemble the army for a decisive battle.

Rurik seemed to be wasting the opportunity, but in fact it was not. A temporary target was in the north of the island.

The Port of White Sands, this settlement must be taken down!

However, maybe they will surrender when they see the military might of the Rus people? It is also good to be able to kill some strong men, take them to Shilla Fort to open up new farmland for themselves, and then pay taxes for generations. At least the incident that Arik condoned his subordinates to hack and kill should not happen again. This is not about kindness, but because it is detrimental to the future interests of the Rus people.